Dell XK946 Server User Manual


 
174 Glossary
EXPANSION BUS Your system contains an expansion bus that allows the processor
to communicate with controllers for peripherals, such as NICs.
EXPANSION CARD An add-in card, such as a NIC or SCSI adapter, that plugs into
an expansion-card connector on the system board. An expansion card adds some
specialized function to the system by providing an interface between the expansion
bus and a peripheral.
EXPANSION-CARD CONNECTOR A connector on the system board or riser board for
plugging in an expansion card.
F—Fahrenheit.
FAT — File allocation table. The file system structure used by MS-DOS to organize
and keep track of file storage. The Microsoft® Windows® operating systems can
optionally use a FAT file system structure.
FLASH MEMORY A type of EEPROM chip that can be reprogrammed from a utility
on diskette while still installed in a system; most EEPROM chips can only be rewritten
with special programming equipment.
FORMAT To prepare a hard drive or diskette for storing files. An unconditional
format deletes all data stored on the disk.
FSB — Front-side bus. The FSB is the data path and physical interface between the
processor and the main memory (RAM).
FT Feet.
FTP File transfer protocol.
G Gram(s).
G—Gravities.
G
B Gigabit(s); 1024 megabits or 1,073,741,824 bits.
GB — Gigabyte(s); 1024 megabytes or 1,073,741,824 bytes. However, when referring
to hard-drive capacity, the term is usually rounded to 1,000,000,000 bytes.
GRAPHICS MODE A video mode that can be defined as x horizontal by y vertical
pixels by z colors.
GROUP As it relates to DMI, a group is a data structure that defines common
information, or attributes, about a manageable component.
GUARDING A type of data redundancy in which a set of physical drives stores data
and an additional drive stores parity data. See also mirroring, striping, and RAID.