Dell GX240 User's Guide - Page 273

Glossary A Ampere. A measurement of current in an electrical conductor. AC Alternating current. Electricity that reverses its direction at a rate of 60 times per second (50 times per second in some countries). See DC. Accelerator A computer component that enhances the processing speed of a particular device, usually by taking over some of the tasks originally assigned by that device. For example, a video accelerator card will take over some of the graphic functions originally assigned to the microprocessor. ACPI Advanced Configuration and Power Interface. An industry standard developed by Intel®, Microsoft®, and Toshiba for computer power management. The key element of the standard is that the OS controls power management. In previous standards, most of the power management tasks were run by the BIOS, with limited intervention by the OS. In ACPI, the BIOS communicates with hardware components in the computer, but the OS controls power management operations. AGP Accelerated graphics port. A high-speed graphics port that produces fast communication between the graphics controller and computer. It allows the video controller to directly access the computer's main memory and bypass the PCI bus. A video expansion card installed in this port can run almost twice as fast as that in a PCI slot. This also helps to reduce the traffic on the PCI bus. ANSI American National Standards Institute. An organization that publishes standards for data alphabets, codes, and signaling schemes. See ISO. 21