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ASUS A7M266 User’s Manual 101
7 . APPENDIX
Glossary
7. APPENDIX
7.3 Glossary
1394
1394 is the IEEE designation for the high performance serial bus at 12.5, 25 or
50MBytes/sec speeds. This serial bus defines both a back plane physical layer and a
point-to-point cable-connected virtual bus. The primary application of the cable ver-
sion is the integration of I/O connectivity at the back panel of personal computers
using a low-cost, scalable, high-speed serial interface. The 1394 standard also pro-
vides new services such as live connect/disconnect capability for external devices
including disk drives, printers and hand-held peripherals such as scanners and cam-
eras. This is a new standard to complement the slower USB interface and to compete
with the more expensive SCSI interface.
AC97 (Audio Codec '97)
AC '97 is the next step in enabling PCs with audio quality comparable to consumer
electronics devices. The specification defines new cost-effective options to help in-
tegrate the components necessary to support next-generation auto-intensive PC ap-
plications such as DVD, 3-D multiplayer gaming and interactive music. The speci-
fication also defines new extensions supporting modem and docking to help both
desktop and mobile manufacturers adopt these new technologies more quickly and
cost-effectively. This specification uses software emulation to compete with the PCI
SoundBlaster specification.
ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface)
The ACPI specification defines a cross-platform interface designed to support many
operating systems. ACPI defines a flexible and abstract hardware interface that pro-
vides a standard way to integrate power management features throughout a PC sys-
tem, including hardware, operating system and application software. This enables
the system to automatically turn ON and OFF peripherals such as CD-ROMs, net-
work cards, hard disk drives, and printers, as well as consumer devices connected to
the PC such as VCRs, TVs, phones, and stereos. With this technology, peripherals
will also be able to activate the PC. For example, inserting a tape into a VCR can
turn on the PC, which could then activate a large-screen TV and high-fidelity sound
system.
AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port)
An interface specification that enables high-performance 3D graphics on mainstream
PCs. AGP was designed to offer the necessary bandwidth and latency to perform
texture mapping directly from system memory.
Bus Bus Frequency Bandwidth Data Transfer Rate
PCI 33MHz 33MHz 133MByte/sec
AGP 1X 66MHz 66MHz 266MByte/sec
AGP 2X 66MHz 133MHz 512MByte/sec
AGP 4X 66MHz 266MHz 1024MByte/sec
BIOS (Basic Input/Output System)
BIOS is a set of routines that affect how the computer transfers data between com-
puter components, such as memory, disks, and the display adapter. The BIOS in-
structions are built into the computer’s read-only memory. BIOS parameters can be
configured by the user through the BIOS Setup program. The BIOS can be updated
using the provided utility to copy a new BIOS file into the EEPROM.
Bit (Binary Digit)
Represents the smallest unit of data used by the computer. A bit can have one of two
values: 0 or 1.