Toshiba Satellite C650D Series User Manual page 160

binary: The base two number system composed of zeros and ones (off or
BIOS: Basic Input Output System. The firmware that controls data flow
bit: Derived from "binary digit," the basic unit of information used by the
board: A circuit board. An internal card containing electronic components,
boot: Short for bootstrap. A program that starts or restarts the computer.
bps: Bits per second. Typically used to describe the data transmission
buffer: The portion of the computer's memory where data is temporarily
bus: An interface for transmission of signals, data or electric power.
byte: The representation of a single character. A sequence of eight bits
C
cache memory: High speed memory which stores data that increases
capacity: The amount of data that can be stored on a magnetic storage
card: Synonym for board. See board.
CardBus: An industry standard bus for 32-bit PC Cards.
CD-ROM: A Compact Disc Read Only Memory is a high capacity disc that
CD-R: A Compact Disc Recordable disc can be written once and read
CD-RW: A Compact Disc ReWritable disc can be rewritten many times.
User's Manual
on), used by most digital computers. The right-most digit of a binary
number has a value of 1, the next a value of 2, then 4, 8, 16, and so
on. For example, the binary number 101 has a value of 5. See also
ASCII.
within the computer. See also firmware.
computer. It is either zero or one. Eight bits is one byte. See also
byte.
called chips, which perform a specific function or increase the
capabilities of the system.
The program reads instructions from a storage device into the
computer's memory.
speed of a modem.
stored. Buffers often compensate for differences in the rate of flow
from one device to another.
treated as a single unit; also the smallest addressable unit within the
system.
processor speed and data transfer rate. When the CPU reads data
from main memory, it stores a copy of this data in cache memory.
The next time the CPU needs that same data, it looks for it in the
cache memory rather than the main memory, which saves time. The
computer has two cache levels. Level one is incorporated into the
processor and level two resides in external memory.
device such as a floppy diskette or hard disk drive. It is usually
described in terms of kilobytes (KB), where one KB = 1024 bytes
and megabytes (MB), where one MB = 1024 KB.
can be read from but not written to. The CD-ROM drive uses a laser,
rather than magnetic heads, to read data from the disc.
many times. See also CD-ROM.
See also CD-ROM.
Glossary
Glossary-4