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Glossary 1
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The following list defines or identifies
technical terms, abbreviations, and acro-
nyms used in Dell user documents.
NOTE: Unless otherwise specified,
these definitions may not apply to oper-
ating systems other than MS-DOS
®
or
Microsoft
®
Windows
®
.
$
Abbreviation for ampere(s).
$&
Abbreviation for alternating current.
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An expansion card that plugs into an
expansion-card connector on the comput-
er’s system board. An adapter card adds
some specialized function to the comput-
er by providing an interface between the
expansion bus and a peripheral device. Ex-
amples of adapter cards include network
cards, sound boards, and SCSI adapters.
$'&
Abbreviation for analog-to-digital
converter.
$',
Abbreviation for Autodesk Device
Interface.
$,
Abbreviation for artificial intelligence.
$16,
Acronym for American National Standards
Institute.
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Software designed to help you perform a
specific task, such as a spreadsheet or
word processor. Applications are distinct
from operating system and utility
software.
$6&,,
Acronym for American Standard Code for
Information Interchange. A text file con-
taining only characters from the ASCII
character set (usually created with a text
editor, such as MS-DOS Editor or Notepad
in Windows), is called an ASCII file.
$6,&
Acronym for application-specific integrat-
ed circuit.
$63,
Advanced SCSI programming interface.
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When you boot your computer, MS-DOS
runs any commands contained in the text
file, autoexec.bat (after running any com-
mands in the config.sys file). An
autoexec.bat file is not required to boot
MS-DOS, but provides a convenient place
to run commands that are essential for
setting up a consistent computing envi-
ronment—such as loading mouse or
network software.
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A copy of a program or data file. As a
precaution, you should back up your
computer’s hard-disk drive on a regular
basis. Before making a change to the con-
figuration of your computer, you should
back up important start-up files, such as