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Glossary
5.375 x 8.375 ver 2.4.0
serial — Processes that occur one at a time. In communications, it
means the transmission of one bit at a time sequentially over a
single channel. On your computer, the serial port provides a serial
interface between the computer and an appropriate device.
Compare parallel.
shortcut — See keyboard shortcut.
software — See program. Compare hardware.
Stand By — A feature of some operating systems that allows you
to turn off the computer without exiting your open applications
and to continue from where you left off when you turn the
computer on again.
Suspend — A feature of some operating systems that allows you to
turn off the computer without exiting your open applications and
to continue from where you left off when you turn the computer
on again.
system disk — A diskette that contains the operating system files
needed to start the computer. Any diskette can be formatted as a
system disk. A system disk is also called a “bootable disk” or a
“startup disk.” Compare non-system disk.
system prompt — The symbol (in the MS-DOS
®
operating system,
generally a drive letter followed by a “greater than” sign)
indicating where users are to enter commands.
T
TFT display — See active-matrix display.
U
universal serial bus (USB) — A serial bus that supports a data
transfer rate of up to 12 Mbps (12 million bits per second). USB
can connect up to 127 peripheral devices through a single all-
purpose USB port. USB allows hot swapping of peripherals. See
also bus, hot swapping, serial.
upload — To send a file to another computer through a modem or
network. See also download.
USB — See universal serial bus (USB).
utility — A computer program designed to perform a narrowly
focused operation or solve a specific problem. Utilities are often
related to computer system management.