Acronyms

access control list - NTFS feature that provides security to files & folders

Advanced Configuration and Power Interface - Power management specificationthat far surpasses its predecessor, APM, by providing support for hot-swappable devices and better control of power modes.

Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line -High speed internet connection technology that uses a regular telephone line for connectivity. Typical home-userDSL connections are ADSL with a download speed of 7 Mbps and an upload speed of 512Kbps.

Accelerated Graphics Port - 32/64-bit expansion slot designed by Intel specifically for video that runs at 66 MHz and yields a throughput of at least 254 Mbps. Later versions(2×, 4×, 8×) give substantially higher throughput.

Advanced Host Controller Interface - a more efficient way to work with SATA HBAs. Using AHCI unlocks some of theadvanced features of SATA, such as hot-swapping and native command queuing.  AHCI is implemented at the CMOS level

Advanced Micro Devices - Originally made Intel clone CPU's.  Now makes original line of CPUs, Chipsets, GPUs

Automatic Private Internet Protocol Addressing - Feature of Windows that automatically assigns an IP address to the system when the client cannot obtain an IP addressautomatically.

Advanced Power Management - BIOS routines that enable the CPU to turn on and off selected peripherals.

address resolution protocol - Protocol in the TCP/IP suite used with the command line utility of the same name (arp) to determine the MAC address that corresponds to a particular IP address.

automated system recovery - Windows XP tool designed to recover a badlycorrupted Windows system; similar to the ERD in Windows 2000

advanced technology attachment - Type of hard drive and controller designed to replace the earlier ST506 and ESDI drives without requiring replacement of the AT BIOS—hence, ATattachment. These drives are more popularly known as IDE drives. (See IDE.) The ATA/33 standard has drive transfer speeds up to 33 MBps; the ATA/66 up to 66 MBps; theATA/100 up to 100 MBps; and the ATA/133 up to 133 MBps. (See Ultra DMA.)

advanced technology attachment packet interface - Series of standards that enables mass storage devices other than hard drives to use the IDE/ATA controllers. Popular with optical drives. (See EIDE.)

asynchronous transfer mode - "a telecommunications concept defined by ANSI and ITU (formerly CCITT) standards for carriage of a complete range of user traffic, including voice, data, and video signals".[1] ATM was developed to meet the needs of the Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network

Advanced Technology Extended -Popular motherboard form factor that generally replaced the AT form factor.

Audio Video

basic input/output system - Classically , software routines burned onto the system ROM of a PC. More commonly seen as any software that directly controls a particularpiece of hardware. A set of programs encoded in read-only memory (ROM) on computers. These programs handle startup operations and low-level control of hardware such as disk drives, the keyboard, and monitor.

Bayonet-Neill-Concelman or British Naval Connector - type of coax connector that uses quarter twist to connect

balanced technology extended - Motherboard form factor designed as an improvement over ATX. canceled in September 2006

Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart - a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine whether or not the user is human

cold cathode fluorescent lamp - Light technology used in LCDs and flatbed scanners. CCFLs use relatively little power for the amount of light they provide.

compact disc

compact disc-read-only memory

compact disc-rewritable

compact disc file system - file system specifically for CD-ROMS

Central File System, Common File System, Command File System

Common Internet File System - operates as an application-layer network protocol mainly used for providing shared access to files, printers, serial ports, and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network

complementary metal-oxide semiconductor - Originally , the type of nonvolatile RAM that held information about the most basic parts of y our PC, such as hard drives,floppies, and amount of DRAM. Today, actual CMOS chips have been replaced by flash type nonvolatile RAM. The information is the same, however, and is still called CMOS—even though it is now almost always stored on Flash RAM

Communications and Networking Riser - Proprietary slot used on some motherboards to provide a sound interference-free connection for modems, sound cards, and NICs

communication port (x=port number) - Serial communications ports available on your computer

central processing unit

Continuity Rambus Inline Memory Mode - Passive device added to populate unused banks in a system that uses Rambus RIMMs.

cathode-ray tube - Tube of a monitor in which rays of electrons are beamed onto a phosphorescent screen to produce images. Also, a shorthand way to describe a monitor that uses CRT rather than LCD technology

discretionary access control

serial communications D-shell connector, 25 pins - D-sub connector (female), commonly referred to as a parallel portconnector.

9 pin D shell connector

direct current Type of electricity in which the flow of electrons is in a complete circle in one direction.

distributed denial of service

double data-rate - Type of DRAM that makes two processes for every clock cycle

distributed file system

dynamic host configuration protocol - Protocol that enables a DHCP server to set TCP/IP settings automatically for a DHCP client.

dual inline memory module - 32- or 64-bit type of DRAM packaging, similar to SIMMs, with the distinction that each side of each tab inserted into the sy stem performs a separate function. DIMMs come in a variety of sizes, with 184- and 240-pin being the most common on desktop computer

Deutsche Industrie Norm - Usually a connector for older style keyboards an mice

dual inline package - switches on the motherboard

digital linear tape - 

digital light processing - 

direct memory access - Technique that some PC hardware devices use to transfer data to and from the memory without using the CPU.

demilitarized zone - A DMZ puts sy stems with the specified IP addresses outside the protection of the firewall, opening all ports and enabling all incoming traffic.

domain name service or domain name server TCP/IP name resolution sy stem that translates a host name into an IP address.

denial of service - 

dynamic random access memory - Memory used to store data in most personal computers. DRAM stores each bit in a “cell” composed of a transistor and a capacitor. Because the capacitor in a DRAM cell can only hold a charge for a few milliseconds, DRAM must be continually refreshed, or rewritten, to retain its data.

digital subscriber line - High-speed Internet connection technology that uses a regular telephone line for connectivity

digital video disc or digital versatile disc - Optical disc format that provides for 4-17 GB of video or data storage

digital video disc-random access memory -

digital video disc-read only memory DVD equivalent of the standard CD-ROM.

digital video disc-recordable

digital video disc-rewritable

digital visual interface - Special video connector designed for digital-to-digital connections; most commonly seen on PC video cards and LCD monitors. Some versions also support analog signals with a special adapter.

• error correction code - Special software, embedded on hard drives, that constantlyscans the drives for bad sectors.
• ECC RAM/DRAM (error correction code DRAM) RAM that uses special chips todetect and fix memory errors. Commonly used in high-end servers where data integrity iscrucial.

extended capabilities port -

electrically erasable programmable read-only memory - 

encrypting file system - Encryption tool found in NTFS 5 and later.

enhanced integrated drive electronics - Marketing concept of hard drive-maker Western Digital,encompassing four improvements for IDE drives, including drives larger than 528 MB,four devices, increase in drive throughput, and non-hard drive devices. (See ATAPI, PIOmode.)

electromagnetic interference - Electrical interference from one device to another,resulting in poor performance of the device being interfered with. Examples: Static on your TV while running a blow dry er, or placing two monitors too close together and getting a“shaky ” screen

electromagnetic pulse

erasable programmable read-only memory - 

enhanced parallel port

emergency repair disk - Saves critical boot files and partition information and is the main tool for fixing boot problems in Windows 2000.

electrostatic discharge - Uncontrolled rush of electrons from one object to another.A real menace to PCs, as it can cause permanent damage to semiconductors.

extended video graphics adapter/array -

evolution data optimized or evolution data only -

file allocation table - Hidden table that records how files on a hard disk are stored indistinct clusters; the only way DOS knows where to access files. Address of first cluster of a file is stored in the directory file. FAT entry for the first cluster is the address of thesecond cluster used to store that file. In the entry for the second cluster for that file is theaddress for the third cluster, and so on until the final cluster, which gets a special end-of-file code. There are two FATs, mirror images of each other, in case one is destroy ed or damaged. Also refers to the 16-bit file allocation table when used by Windows 2000 and later NT-based operating systems

12-bit file allocation table

16-bit file allocation table - File allocation table that uses 16 bits for addressing clusters. Used as the primary hard drive format on DOS and early Windows 95 machines; currently used with smaller (2GB or less) capacity flash media devices.

32-bit file allocation table - File allocation table that uses 32 bits for addressing clusters. Commonly used with Windows 98 and Windows Me systems. Some Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP systems also use FAT32, although most modern Windows systems use the more robust NTFS. Default format for flash media devices larger than 2 GB

floppy disk drive - System hardware that uses removable 3.5-inch disks as storage media.

Function (referring to the function key on a laptop)

fast page-mode

field replaceable unit - Any part of a PC that is considered to be replaceable “in the field,” i.e., a customer location. There is no official list of FRUs—it is usually a matter of policy by the repair center.

Front Side Bus - Wires that connect the CPU to the main system RAM. Generally running at speeds of 66–133 MHz. Distinct from the expansion bus and the backside bus, though it shares wires with the former.

file transfer protocol - Rules that enable two computers to talk to one another during a file transfer. Protocol used when you transfer a file from one computer to anotheracross the Internet. FTP uses port numbers 20 and 21.

fully qualified domain name -

gigabit

gigabyte

graphics device interface - 

gigahertz

graphical user interface

global positioning system

global system for mobile communications -

hardware abstraction layer - Part of the Windows OS that separates system specific device drivers from the rest of the NT sy stem.

Hardware Assisted Virtualization

hardware compatibility list -

hard disk drive Data-recording system using solid disks of magnetic material turning at high speeds to store and retrieve programs and data in a computer.

high definition media interface - Single multimedia connection that includes both high-definition video and audio. One of the best connections for outputting to television.Also contains copy protection features.

high performance file system -

hypertext markup language - ASCII-based, script-like language for creating hypertext documents such as those on the World Wide Web.

Home theater PC A home theater PC designed to attach to a TV or projector for movie and TV viewing.

hypertext transfer protocol - Extremely fast protocol used for network file transfers in the WWW environment. Uses port 80.

hypertext transfer protocol over secure sockets layer - Secure form of HTTP used commonly for Internet business transactions or any time when a secure connection is required. Uses port443. (See also HTTP.)

input/output General term for reading and writing data to a computer. “Input”includes data entered from a key board, identified by a pointing device (such as a mouse),or loaded from a disk. “Output” includes writing information to a disk, viewing it on a CRT,or printing it to a printer.

internet control message protocol -