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Glossary
This glossary includes terms and defi-
nitions from the
IBM Dictionary of Com-
puting
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994)
ac (AC). Alternating current.
ac power. Power that is supplied to the
computer through an electrical outlet.
Advanced Power Management (APM).
A facility consisting of one or more layers
of software that support power manage-
ment in computers with power manage-
able hardware. The APM software
interface allows applications, operating
systems, device drivers, and the APM
BIOS to work together to reduce power
consumption, without reducing system
performance.
ANSI. American National Standards
Institute.
APM. Advanced Power Management.
application program. A program that
performs specific tasks on your com-
puter, such as word processing or cre-
ating spreadsheets.
ASCII. American National Standard
Code for Information Interchange.
ATA PC Card. A PC Card with an AT
attachment hard disk drive interface such
as a storage device PC Card.
AUTOEXEC.BAT. A file that contains a
startup procedure of DOS. Each time you
start your system, DOS performs the
commands that are stored in this file.
backup copy. A copy, usually of a file
or group of files, that is kept in case the
original file or files are unintentionally
changed or destroyed.
batch. A process method in which a
program or programs records with little or
no operator action.
bay. The ThinkPad 240 compartment
for installing device modules.
BIOS (Basic Input/Output System).
Microcode that contains such basic hard-
ware operations as interactions with
diskette drives, hard disk drives, and the
keyboard.
bitmap graphics. (1) A form of graphics
in which all points on the display are
directly addressable, (2) In multimedia
applications, a form of graphics in an
area of computer memory or storage that
can be displayed as an image.
boot. To prepare a computer system for
operation by loading an operating
system.
bps. Bits per second. In serial trans-
mission, the instantaneous bit speed with
which a device or channel transmits a
character.
bus. A facility for transferring data
between several devices located between
two end points, only one device being
able to transmit at a given moment.
cache memory. A special memory,
smaller and faster than main memory,
that is used to hold a copy of instructions
and data in main memory that is likely to
be needed next by the processor, and
that have been obtained automatically
from main memory.
CD. Compact disc.
CD-I. Compact disc-interactive.
Copyright IBM Corporation 1999 151