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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 most common form factors in use
today are; ATX, microATX, FlexATX, Extended ATX, SSI EEB, and SSI MEB.
Global timer: onboard hardware timer, such as the Real-Time Clock (RTC).
Handshaking: a form of encryption. One system, typically the server, sends an encryption
scheme to another agent, typically a client. Thus, the client’s data is protected during transmittal to
the server.
HDD: stands for Hard Disk Drive, a type of fixed drive.
H-SYNC: controls the horizontal synchronization/properties of the monitor.
IC (Integrated Circuit): the common, formal name for a computer chip.
IDE (Integrated Device/Drive Electronics): a simple, self-contained HDD interface. It can handle
drives up to 8.4 GB in size. Almost all IDE drives sold today are a form of Enhanced IDE (EIDE),
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 a computer and another device (mouse, keyboard,
etc.)
Initial Program Load (IPL): a feature built into BBS-compliant devices, describing those devices
as capable of loading and executing an O/S, as well as being able to provide control back to the
BIOS if the loading attempt fails.
IPL: see Initial Program Load.
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 cause problems. Plug-n-Play operating systems can take care of these details for you.
ISA (Industry Standard Architecture): a slower 8- or 16-bit bus (data pathway). The original IBM
PC, PC-XT, and PC-AT utilized these bus architectures.
Latency: 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 waits for the
peripheral to send data back (peripherals tend to be slower than onboard system components).
Mirroring: see RAID.
NVRAM: ROM and EEPROM are both examples of Non-Volatile RAM, memory that holds its data
without power. DRAM, in contrast, is volatile.