Toshiba TECRA A8 User Manual page 191

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-R: A Compact Disc-Recordable disc can be written once and read
CD-ROM: A Compact Disc-Read Only Memory is a high capacity disc that
CD-RW: A Compact Disc-ReWritable disc can be rewritten many times.
character: Any letter, number, punctuation mark, or symbol used by the
chassis: The frame containing the computer.
chip: A small semiconductor containing computer logic and circuitry for
User's Manual
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 disk or hard disk. It is usually described in
terms of kilobytes (KB), where one KB = 1024 bytes and
megabytes (MB), where one MB = 1024 KB.
many times. See also CD-ROM.
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.
See also CD-ROM.
computer. Also synonymous with byte.
processing, memory, input/output functions and controlling other
chips.
Glossary
Glossary-4