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Appendix
Glossary
Firmware is low level software that controls the system hardware.
Form factor is an industry term for the size, shape, power supply type, and
external connector type of the PCB (personal computer board) or motherboard.
The standard form factors are the AT and ATX, although TYAN also makes
some Baby-AT boards.
A Global timer is an onboard hardware timer, such as the Real Time Clock.
Handshaking is a form of encryption. One system, typically the server, sends
an encryption scheme to another agent, typically a client. Thus, the clients
data is protected during transmittal to the server.
HDD stands for Hard Disk Drive.
H-SYNC controls the horizontal properties of the monitor.
IC (Integrated Circuit) is the formal name for the computer chip.
IDE Integrated Device (or Drive) Electronics is a simple, self-contained hard
drive interface. It can handle drives up to 8.4GB in size. Almost all IDEs sold
now are in fact Enhanced IDEs (EIDEs).
IDE INT (IDE Interrupt) is a hardware interrupt signal that goes to the IDE.
I/O Input/Output is the connection between your computer and another piece
of hardware (mouse, keyboard, etc.).
IRQ An Interrupt Request is 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. Happily, Plug and Play operating systems take care of these
details for you.
ISA stands for Industry Standard Architecture. ISA is a slower 8- or 16-bit BUS
(data pathway).
Latency is the amount of time that one part of a system spends waiting for
another part to catch up. This is most common when the system sends data
out to a peripheral device, and is waiting for the peripheral to send some data
back (peripherals tend to be slower than onboard system components).