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222 Glossary
BIOS — basic input/output system — A program (or utility) that serves as an
interface between the computer hardware and the operating system. Unless you
understand what effect these settings have on the computer, do not change them. Also
referred to as system setup.
bit — The smallest unit of data interpreted by your computer.
Blu-ray Disc™ (BD)— An optical storage technology offering storage capacity of up
to 50 GB, full 1080p video resolution (HDTV required), and as many as 7.1 channels
of native, uncompressed surround sound.
Blue-ray Disk Recordable (BD-R) — Blu-ray Disk recordable refers to two optical disc
formats that can be recorded with an optical disk recorder. BD-R discs can be written
to once.
Blu-ray Disk RE (BD-RE) — Blu-ray Disk RE can be erased and recorded multiple
times.
Bluetooth
®
wireless technology — A wireless technology standard for short-range
(9 m [29 feet]) networking devices that allows for enabled devices to automatically
recognize each other.
boot sequence — Specifies the order of the devices from which the computer
attempts to boot.
bootable CD — A CD that you can use to start your computer. In case your hard drive
is damaged or your computer has a virus, ensure that you always have a bootable CD
or floppy disk available. Your Drivers and Utilities media is a bootable CD.
bootable disk — A disk that you can use to start your computer. In case your hard
drive is damaged or your computer has a virus, ensure that you always have a bootable
CD or floppy disk available.
bps — bits per second — The standard unit for measuring data transmission speed.
BTU — British thermal unit — A measurement of heat output.
bus — A communication pathway between the components in your computer.
bus speed — The speed, given in MHz, that indicates how fast a bus can transfer
information.
byte — The basic data unit used by your computer. A byte is usually equal to 8 bits.
C
C — Celsius — A temperature measurement scale where 0° is the freezing point and
100° is the boiling point of water.