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ESCD (Extended System Configuration Data): a format for storing information about
Plug-n-Play devices in the system BIOS. This information helps properly configure the
system each time it boots.
Firmware: low-level software that controls the system hardware.
Form factor: an industry term for the size, shape, power supply type, and external
connector type of the Personal Computer Board (PCB) or motherboard. The standard
form factors are the AT and ATX.
IDE (Integrated Device/Drive Electronics): a simple, self-contained HDD interface. It
can handle drives up to 8.4 GB in size. Almost all IDEs sold now are in fact Enhanced
IDEs (EIDEs), with maximum capacity determined by the hardware controller.
IDE INT (IDE Interrupt): a hardware interrupt signal that goes to the IDE.
I/O (Input/Output): the connection between your computer and another piece of
hardware (mouse, keyboard, etc.)
IRQ (Interrupt Request): an electronic request that runs from a hardware device to the
CPU. The interrupt controller assigns priorities to incoming requests and delivers them to
the CPU. It is important that there is only one device hooked up to each IRQ line;
doubling up devices on IRQ lines can lock up your system. Plug-n-Play operating
systems can take care of these details for you.
Latency: the amount of time that one part of a system spends waiting for another part to
catch up. This occurs most commonly when the system sends data out to a peripheral
device and has to wait for the peripheral to spread (peripherals tend to be slower than
onboard system components).
NVRAM: ROM and EEPROM are both examples of Non-Volatile RAM, memory that
holds its data without power. DRAM, in contrast, is volatile.
OPROM: Firmware on adapter cards that control bootable peripherals. The system
BIOS interrogates the option ROMs to determine which devices can be booted.
Parallel port: transmits the bits of a byte on eight different wires at the same time.
PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect): a 32 or 64-bit local bus (data pathway)
which is faster than the ISA bus. Local buses are those which operate within a single
system (as opposed to a network bus, which connects multiple systems).
PCI PIO (PCI Programmable Input/Output) modes: the data transfer modes used by
IDE drives. These modes use the CPU for data transfer (in contrast, DMA channels do
not). PCI refers to the type of bus used by these modes to communicate with the CPU.