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Glossary 357
Glossary
Terms in this Glossary are provided for informational purposes only and may or may not describe
features included with your particular computer.
A
AC — alternating current — The form of electricity that powers your computer when you plug the AC adapter
power cable in to an electrical outlet.
ACPI — advanced configuration and power interface — A power management specification that enables
Microsoft
®
Windows
®
operating systems to put a computer in standby or hibernate mode to conserve the
amount of electrical power allocated to each device attached to the computer.
AGP — accelerated graphics port — A dedicated graphics port that allows system memory to be used for video-
related tasks. AGP delivers a smooth, true-color video image because of the faster interface between the video
circuitry and the computer memory.
AHCI — Advanced Host Controller Interface — An interface for a SATA hard drive Host Controller which
allows the storage driver to enable technologies such as Native Command Queuing (NCQ) and hot plug.
ALS — ambient light sensor — A feature that helps to control display brightness.
antivirus software — A program designed to identify, quarantine, and/or delete viruses from your computer.
ASF — alert standards format — A standard to define a mechanism for reporting hardware and software alerts
to a management console. ASF is designed to be platform- and operating system-independent.
B
battery life span — The length of time (years) during which a portable computer battery is able to be depleted
and recharged.
battery operating time — The length of time (minutes or hours) that a portable computer battery powers the
computer.
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.
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 media — 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 DVD, CD, or floppy disk available. Your Drivers
and Utilities media.