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64 Glossary
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 videorelated 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. 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 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 or ResourceCD 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.