Sony CRX1600L Personal Computer User Manual


 
30
DC Power (Direct Current) Power
Electronic components require direct current
which is a current maintained at a constant level,
not alternating in a sine wave like alternating
current. Because of this property direct current
can be used by the computer, not just to power
components, but at different voltage levels to
send electrical signals by means of pulses.
Alternating Current has the ability to send
electricity over long distances. Alternating
Current provides power to, and throughout your
house. Electronic devices like your computer
have a power supply which takes alternating
current and changes it into the Direct Current
needed by your computer.
Defragment
There are defragmentation utilities which put all
files into contiguous locations on a hard drive.
Another way to defragment is to copy files to a
newly reformatted hard drive since files will be
written contiguously until there are open
locations between files caused by erasing. See
Fragmented Hard Drive.
Digital
Discrete information that can be broken down to
one or zero bits.
Driver(s)
A software component that drives devices or
components, such as drives, or EIDE or SCSI
buses.
Digital Video Format
Format standard for Digital Video devices.
DVD (DVD-ROM)
Digital Versatile Disk, an enhancement of CD-
ROM technology with greater capacity. DVD
media have a minimum capacity of 4.7 GB and a
maximum capacity of 17GB while CD-ROM,
CD-R and CD-RW media have a maximum
capacity of 650 MB (roughly two thirds of a
single MB).
EIDE
Enhanced IDE supports two IDE ports unlike
IDEs single port. Commonly referred to as IDE.
FireWire
The trademark for IEEE 1394 proposed and
registered by Apple Computer.
Fragmented Hard Drive
Files are not always stored on a hard drive in
contiguous locations on the drive, but where there
is space available. Parts of a large file may be
stored in several actual physical locations.
Fragmentation occurs when files are erased and
then new files are written. Erasing files can leave
open locations between existing files. As these
open locations are used they cause the files to be
fragmented. Reading from fragmented files is
slower than reading from contiguous locations on
the disk because the read head will have to move
to the proper track, like moving to the proper
track on record, then wait for the proper place on
that track to rotate under the read head. The more
a drive is used, the more fragmented it will
become.
Hops
The way of counting the number of cables
between i.LINK devices.
Host
A device on the SCSI bus is either a host or
target. The host is also known as the initiator.
i.LINK
The trademark for IEEE 1394 proposed and
registered by Sony Electronics.
Jumper (Configuration Jumper)
A metal bridge encased in plastic that when
placed across jumper configuration pins will
complete an electric circuit. In this way, this
configuration is chosen. Jumpers are used instead
of more costly and less reliable means of
changing configurations, such as switches.
kb
kilobyte. Basically this means 1000 bytes, but is
actually 1024 bytes.
kb/s
kilobytes per second. Means of measuring
throughput.
Kilobyte
See kb