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Glossary 167
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.
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 DVD, CD, or floppy 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 bootable media available. Your Drivers and
Utilities media is bootable media.
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°