This section defines or identifies technical terms, abbreviations, and acronyms used in your system documents.
A
Ampere(s) |
AC
Alternating current |
ACPI
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface; a standard interface for enabling the operating system to direct configuration and power management |
ambient temperature
The temperature of the area or room where the system is located |
ANSI
American National Standards Institute; the primary organization for developing technology standards in the U.S. |
application
Software designed to help you perform a specific task or series of tasks. Applications run from the operating system. |
ASCII
American Standard Code for Information Interchange |
asset tag
An individual code assigned to a system, usually by an administrator, for security or tracking purposes |
backup
A copy of a program or data file. As a precaution, back up your system's hard drive on a regular basis. Before making a change to the configuration of your system, back up important start-up files from your operating system. |
backup battery
A battery that maintains system configuration, date, and time information in a special section of memory when the system is turned off |
beep code
A diagnostic message in the form of a pattern of beeps from your system's speaker. For example, one beep, followed by a second beep, and then a burst of three beeps is beep code 1-1-3. |
BIOS
Basic input/output system. Your system's BIOS contains programs stored on a flash memory chip. The BIOS controls the following: - Communications between the processor and peripheral devices
- Miscellaneous functions, such as system messages
|
bit
The smallest unit of information interpreted by your system |
blade
A module that contains a processor, memory, and a hard drive. The modules are mounted into a chassis that includes power supplies and fans. |
BMC
Baseboard management controller |
boot routine
A program that clears all memory, initializes devices, and loads the operating system when you start your system. Unless the operating system fails to respond, you can reboot (also called warm boot) your system by pressing <Ctrl><Alt><Del>. Otherwise, you must restart the system by pressing the reset button or by turning the system off and then back on. |
bootable diskette
A diskette that is used to start your system if the system will not boot from the hard drive |
BTU
British thermal unit |
bus
An information pathway between the components of a system. Your system contains an expansion bus that allows the processor to communicate with controllers for the peripheral devices connected to the system. Your system also contains an address bus and a data bus for communications between the processor and RAM. |
C
Celsius |
cache
A fast storage area that keeps a copy of data or instructions for quick data retrieval. When a program makes a request to a disk drive for data that is in the cache, the disk-cache utility can retrieve the data from RAM faster than from the disk drive. |
CD
Compact disc. CD drives use optical technology to read data from CDs. |
component
As they relate to DMI, components include operating systems, computer systems, expansion cards, and peripherals that are compatible with DMI. Each component is made up of groups and attributes that are defined as relevant to that component. |
COMn
The device names for the serial ports on your system |
control panel
The part of the system that contains indicators and controls, such as the power button and power indicator |
controller
A chip that controls the transfer of data between the processor and memory or between the processor and a peripheral |
conventional memory
The first 640 KB of RAM. Conventional memory is found in all systems. Unless they are specially designed, MS-DOS® programs are limited to running in conventional memory. |
coprocessor
A chip that relieves the system's processor of specific processing tasks. A math coprocessor, for example, handles numeric processing. |
CPU
Central processing unit. See processor. |
DC
Direct current |
DDR
Double-data rate; a technology in memory modules that potentially doubles the output |
device driver
A program that allows the operating system or some other program to interface correctly with a peripheral. Some device drivers—such as network drivers—must be loaded from the config.sys file or as memory-resident programs (usually, from the autoexec.bat file). Others must load when you start the program for which they were designed. |
DHCP
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol; a method of automatically assigning an IP address to a client system |
diagnostics
A comprehensive set of tests for your system |
DIMM
Dual in-line memory module. See also memory module.
|
DIN
Deutsche Industrie Norm |
directory
Directories help keep related files organized on a disk in a hierarchical, "inverted tree" structure. Each disk has a "root" directory. Additional directories that branch off the root directory are called subdirectories. Subdirectories may contain additional directories branching off them. |
DMA
Direct memory access. A DMA channel allows certain types of data transfer between RAM and a device to bypass the processor. |
DMI
Desktop Management Interface. DMI enables the management of your system's software and hardware by collecting information about the system's components, such as the operating system, memory, peripherals, expansion cards, and asset tag. |
DNS
Domain Name System; a method of translating Internet domain names, such as www.dell.com, into IP addresses, such as 143.166.83.200 |
DRAM
Dynamic random-access memory. A system's RAM is usually made up entirely of DRAM chips. |
DVD
Digital versatile disc |
ECC
Error checking and correction |
EEPROM
Electronically erasable programmable read-only memory |
EMC
Electromagnetic compatibility |
EMI
Electromagnetic interference |
ERA
Embedded remote access. ERA allows you to perform remote, or "out-of-band," server management on your network server using a remote access controller. |
ESD
Electrostatic discharge |
expansion bus
Your system contains an expansion bus that allows the processor to communicate with controllers for peripherals, such as NICs. |
expansion card
An add-in card, such as a NIC or SCSI adapter, that plugs into an expansion-card connector on the system board. An expansion card adds some specialized function to the system by providing an interface between the expansion bus and a peripheral. |
expansion-card connector
A connector on the system board or riser board for plugging in an expansion card |
F
Fahrenheit |
FAT
File allocation table. The file system structure used by MS-DOS to organize and keep track of file storage. The Microsoft® Windows® operating systems can optionally use a FAT file system structure. |
flash memory
A type of EEPROM chip that can be reprogrammed from a utility on diskette while still installed in a system; most EEPROM chips can only be rewritten with special programming equipment. |
format
To prepare a hard drive or diskette for storing files. An unconditional format deletes all data stored on the disk. |
FSB
Front-side bus. The FSB is the data path and physical interface between the processor and the main memory (RAM). |
ft
Feet |
FTP
File transfer protocol |
g
Gram(s) |
G
Gravities |
Gb
Gigabit(s); 1024 megabits or 1,073,741,824 bits |
GB
Gigabyte(s); 1024 megabytes or 1,073,741,824 bytes. However, when referring to hard-drive capacity, the term is usually rounded to 1,000,000,000 bytes. |
graphics mode
A video mode that can be defined as x horizontal by y vertical pixels by z colors |
group
As it relates to DMI, a group is a data structure that defines common information, or attributes, about a manageable component. |
guarding
A type of data redundancy in which a set of physical drives stores data and an additional drive stores parity data. See also mirroring, striping, and RAID. |
h
Hexadecimal. A base-16 numbering system, often used in programming to identify addresses in the system's RAM and I/O memory addresses for devices. In text, hexadecimal numbers are often followed by h. |
headless system
A system or device that functions without having a keyboard, mouse, or monitor attached. Normally, headless systems are managed over a network using an Internet browser. |
host adapter
A host adapter implements communication between the system's bus and the controller for a peripheral device. (Hard-drive controller subsystems include integrated host adapter circuitry.) To add a SCSI expansion bus to your system, you must install or connect the appropriate host adapter. |
Hz
Hertz |
I/O
Input/output. A keyboard is an input device, and a monitor is an output device. In general, I/O activity can be differentiated from computational activity. |
ID
Identification |
IDE
Integrated drive electronics; a standard interface between the system board and storage devices |
integrated mirroring
Provides simultaneous physical mirroring of two drives. Integrated mirroring functionality is provided by the system's hardware. See also mirroring. |
internal processor cache
An instruction and data cache built into the processor |
IP
Internet Protocol |
IRQ
Interrupt request. A signal that data is about to be sent to or received by a peripheral device travels by an IRQ line to the processor. Each peripheral connection must be assigned an IRQ number. Two devices can share the same IRQ assignment, but you cannot operate both devices simultaneously. |
jumper
Small blocks on a circuit board with two or more pins emerging from them. Plastic plugs containing a wire fit down over the pins. The wire connects the pins and creates a circuit, providing a simple and reversible method of changing the circuitry in a board. |
K
Kilo-, indicating 1000 |
Kb
Kilobit(s); 1024 bits |
KB
Kilobyte(s);1024 bytes |
Kbps
Kilobit(s) per second |
KBps
Kilobyte(s) per second |
key combination
A command requiring you to press multiple keys at the same time (for example, <Ctrl><Alt><Del>) |
kg
Kilogram(s); 1000 grams |
KMM
Keyboard/monitor/mouse |
KVM
Keyboard/video/mouse. KVM refers to a switch that allows selection of the system from which the video is displayed and for which the keyboard and mouse are used. |
LAN
Local area network. A LAN is usually confined to the same building or a few nearby buildings, with all equipment linked by wiring dedicated specifically to the LAN. |
lb
Pound(s) |
LCD
Liquid crystal display |
LED
Light-emitting diode; an electronic device that lights up when a current is passed through it |
Linux
A version of the UNIX® operating system that runs on a variety of hardware systems. Linux is open source software, which is freely available; however, the full distribution of Linux along with technical support and training are available for a fee from vendors such as Red Hat Software. |
local bus
On a system with local-bus expansion capability, certain peripheral devices (such as the video adapter circuitry) can be designed to run much faster than they would with a traditional expansion bus. See also bus. |
m
Meter(s) |
mA
Milliampere(s) |
MAC address
Media Access Control address; your system's unique hardware number on a network |
Mb
Megabit(s); 1,048,576 bits |
MB
Megabyte(s); 1,048,576 bytes. However, when referring to hard-drive capacity, the term is often rounded to mean 1,000,000 bytes. |
Mbps
Megabits per second |
MBps
Megabytes per second |
MBR
Master boot record |
memory address
A specific location, usually expressed as a hexadecimal number, in the system's RAM |
memory module
A small circuit board containing DRAM chips that connects to the system board |
memory
An area in your system that stores basic system data. A system can contain several different forms of memory, such as integrated memory (ROM and RAM) and add-in memory modules (DIMMs). |
MHz
Megahertz |
mirroring
A type of data redundancy in which a set of physical drives stores data and one or more sets of additional drives stores duplicate copies of the data. Mirroring functionality is provided by software. See also guarding, integrated mirroring, striping, and RAID. |
mm
Millimeter(s) |
ms
Millisecond(s) |
MS-DOS
Microsoft Disk Operating System |
NAS
Network Attached Storage. NAS is one of the concepts used for implementing shared storage on a network. NAS systems have their own operating systems, integrated hardware, and software that are optimized to serve specific storage needs. |
NIC
Network interface controller; device that is installed or integrated in a system to allow connection to a network |
NMI
Nonmaskable interrupt. A device sends an NMI to signal the processor about hardware errors. |
NTFS
The NT File System option in the Windows 2000 operating system |
NVRAM
Nonvolatile random-access memory. Memory that does not lose its contents when you turn off your system. NVRAM is used for maintaining the date, time, and system configuration information. |
parity
Redundant information that is associated with a block of data |
partition
You can divide a hard drive into multiple physical sections called partitions with the fdisk command. Each partition can contain multiple logical drives. You must format each logical drive with the format command. |
PCI
Peripheral Component Interconnect; a standard for local-bus implementation |
PDU
Power distribution unit; a power source with multiple power outlets that provides electrical power to servers and storage systems in a rack |
peripheral
An internal or external device, such as a diskette drive or keyboard, connected to a system |
PGA
Pin grid array; a type of processor socket that allows you to remove the processor chip |
pixel
A single point on a video display. Pixels are arranged in rows and columns to create an image. A video resolution, such as 640 x 480, is expressed as the number of pixels across by the number of pixels up and down. |
POST
Power-on self-test. Before the operating system loads when you turn on your system, the POST tests various system components such as RAM and hard drives. |
processor
The primary computational chip inside the system that controls the interpretation and execution of arithmetic and logic functions. Software written for one processor must usually be revised to run on another processor. CPU is a synonym for processor. |
protected mode
An operating mode that allows operating systems to implement: - A memory address space of 16 MB to 4 GB
- Multitasking
- Virtual memory, a method for increasing addressable memory by using the hard drive
The Windows 2000 and UNIX 32-bit operating systems run in protected mode. MS-DOS cannot run in protected mode. |
PS/2
Personal System/2 |
PXE
Preboot eXecution Environment; a way of booting a system via a LAN (without a hard drive or bootable diskette) |
RAC
Remote access controller |
RAID
Redundant array of independent disks; a method of providing data redundancy. Some common implementations of RAID include RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, and RAID 50. See also guarding, mirroring, and striping. |
RAM
Random-access memory. The system's primary temporary storage area for program instructions and data. Any information stored in RAM is lost when you turn off your system. |
RAS
Remote Access Service. This service allows users running the Windows operating system to remotely access a network from their system using a modem. |
readme file
A text file, usually shipped with software or hardware, that contains information supplementing or updating the product's documentation. |
read-only file
A read-only file is one that you are prohibited from editing or deleting. |
ROM
Read-only memory. Your system contains some programs essential to its operation in ROM code. A ROM chip retains its contents even after you turn off your system. Examples of code in ROM include the program that initiates your system's boot routine and the POST. |
ROMB
RAID on Motherboard |
rpm
Revolutions per minute |
SATA
Serial Advanced Technology Attachment; a standard interface between the system board and storage devices |
SCSI
Small computer system interface; an I/O bus interface with faster data transmission rates than standard ports |
SDRAM
Synchronous dynamic random-access memory |
sec
Second(s) |
serial port
An I/O port used most often to connect a modem to your system. You can usually identify a serial port on your system by its 9-pin connector. |
service tag
A bar code label on the system used to identify it when you call Dell for technical support |
SMART
Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology; allows hard drives to report errors and failures to the system BIOS and then display an error message on the screen |
SMP
Symmetric multiprocessing; used to describe a system that has two or more processors connected via a high-bandwidth link and managed by an operating system, where each processor has equal access to I/O devices |
SNMP
Simple Network Management Protocol; a standard interface that allows a network manager to remotely monitor and manage workstations |
striping
Disk striping writes data across three or more disks in an array, but only uses a portion of the space on each disk. The amount of space used by a "stripe" is the same on each disk used. A virtual disk may use several stripes on the same set of disks in an array. See also guarding, mirroring, and RAID. |
SVGA
Super video graphics array. VGA and SVGA are video standards for video adapters with greater resolution and color display capabilities than previous standards. |
system board
As the main circuit board, the system board usually contains most of your system's integral components, such as the processor, RAM, controllers for peripherals, and various ROM chips. |
system configuration information
Data stored in memory that tells a system what hardware is installed and how the system should be configured for operation |
system diskette
See bootable diskette. |
system memory
See RAM. |
System Setup program
A BIOS-based program that allows you to configure your system's hardware and customize the system's operation by setting features such as password protection. Because the System Setup program is stored in NVRAM, any settings remain in effect until you change them again. |
system.ini file
A start-up file for the Windows operating system. When you start Windows, it consults the system.ini file to determine a variety of options for the Windows operating environment. Among other things, the system.ini file records which video, mouse, and keyboard drivers are installed for Windows. |
termination
Some devices (such as the last device at each end of a SCSI cable) must be terminated to prevent reflections and spurious signals in the cable. When such devices are connected in a series, you may need to enable or disable the termination on these devices by changing jumper or switch settings on the devices or by changing settings in the configuration software for the devices. |
UNIX
UNiversal Internet eXchange. UNIX, the precursor to Linux, is an operating system written in the C programming language. |
uplink port
A port on a network hub or switch used to connect to other hubs or switches without requiring a crossover cable |
UPS
Uninterruptible power supply; a battery-powered unit that automatically supplies power to your system in the event of an electrical failure |
USB
Universal Serial Bus. A USB connector provides a single connection point for multiple USB-compliant devices, such as mice and keyboards. USB devices can be connected and disconnected while the system is running. |
utility
A program used to manage system resources—memory, disk drives, or printers, for example |
UTP
Unshielded twisted pair; a type of wiring used to connect systems in a business or home to a telephone line |
V
Volt(s) |
VAC
Volt(s) alternating current |
VDC
Volt(s) direct current |
VGA
Video graphics array. VGA and SVGA are video standards for video adapters with greater resolution and color display capabilities than previous standards. |
video adapter
The logical circuitry that provides—in combination with the monitor—your system's video capabilities. A video adapter may be integrated into the system board or may be an expansion card that plugs into an expansion slot. |
video driver
A program that allows graphics-mode application programs and operating systems to display at a chosen resolution with the desired number of colors. Video drivers may need to match the video adapter installed in the system. |
video memory
Most VGA and SVGA video adapters include memory chips in addition to your system's RAM. The amount of video memory installed primarily influences the number of colors that a program can display (with the appropriate video drivers and monitor capabilities). |
video resolution
Video resolution—800 x 600, for example—is expressed as the number of pixels across by the number of pixels up and down. To display a program at a specific graphics resolution, you must install the appropriate video drivers and your monitor must support the resolution. |
W
Watt(s) |
WH
Watt-hour(s) |
win.ini file
A start-up file for the Windows operating system. When you start Windows, it consults the win.ini file to determine a variety of options for the Windows operating environment. The win.ini file also usually includes sections that contain optional settings for Windows application programs that are installed on the hard drive. |
Windows 2000
An integrated and complete Microsoft Windows operating system that does not require MS-DOS and that provides advanced operating system performance, improved ease of use, enhanced workgroup functionality, and simplified file management and browsing. |
Windows Powered
A Windows operating system designed for use on NAS systems. For NAS systems, the Windows Powered operating system is dedicated to file service for network clients. |
Windows Server 2003
A set of Microsoft software technologies that enable software integration through the use of XML Web services. XML Web services are small reusable applications written in XML that allow data to be communicated between otherwise unconnected sources. |
XML
eXtensible Markup Language. XML is a way to create common information formats and to share both the format and the data on the World Wide Web, intranets, and elsewhere. |