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ASUS CUWE User’s Manual 123
7 . APPENDIX
Glossary
7. APPENDIX
Device Driver
A device driver is a special set of instructions that allows the computer’s operating
system to communicate with devices such as VGA, audio, printer, or modem.
DOS (Disk Operating System)
DOS is the foundation on which all other programs and software applications oper-
ate, including Windows. DOS is responsible for allocating system resources such as
memory, CPU time, disk space, and access to peripheral devices. For this reason,
DOS constitutes the basic interface between you and your computer.
Flash ROM
The flash ROM is designed to be a resident program and can be updated by a specific
programming method. Normally, the flash ROM is used for system BIOS which ini-
tiates hardware devices and sets up necessary parameters for the OS. Since the con-
tents of flash ROM can be modified, users are able to update the BIOS by themselves.
IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics)
IDE devices integrate the drive control circuitry directly on the drive itself, elimi-
nating the need for a separate adapter card (in the case for SCSI devices). UltraDMA/
33 IDE devices can achieve up to 33MB/Sec transfer.
LPT Port (Line Printer Port)
Logical device name reserved by DOS for the computer parallel ports. Each LPT
port is configured to use a different IRQ and address assignment.
MMX
A set of 57 new instructions based on a technique called Single Instruction, Multiple
Data (SIMD), which is built into the new Intel Pentium PP/MT (P55C) and Pentium
II (Klamath) CPU as well as other x86-compatible microprocessors. The MMX in-
structions are designed to accelerate multimedia and communications applications,
such as 3D video, 3D sound, video conference.
OnNow
The OnNow design initiative is a comprehensive, system-wide approach to system
and device power control. OnNow is a term for PC that is always ON but appears
OFF and responds immediately to user or other requests. The OnNow design initia-
tive involves changes that will occur in the Microsoft Windows operating system,
device drivers, hardware, and applications, and also relies on the changes defined in
the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) specification.
PC100
SDRAM is Intel's goal is to ensure that memory subsystems continue to support
evolving platform requirements and to assure that memory does not become a bottle-
neck to system performance. It is especially important to ensure that the PC memory
roadmap evolves together with the performance roadmaps for the processors, I/O
and graphics.
PCI Bus (Peripheral Component Interconnect Local Bus)
PCI bus is a specification that defines a 32-bit data bus interface. PCI is a standard
widely used by expansion card manufacturers.
PCI Bus Master
The PCI Bus Master can perform data transfer without local CPU help and further-
more, the CPU can be treated as one of the Bus Masters. PCI 2.1 supports concur-
rent PCI operation to allow the local CPU and bus master to work simultaneously.