Fujitsu A3110 A3110 User's Guide - Page 85

falcon.book Page 75 Friday, August 4, 2006 11:12 AM Glossary Glossary AC Adapter A device which converts the AC voltage from a wall outlet to the DC voltage needed to power your LifeBook notebook. ACPI Advanced Configuration and Power Interface Active-Matrix Display A type of technology for making flat-panel displays which has a transistor or similar device for every pixel on the screen. AdHoc A name of a wireless LAN configuration. It is a type of communication using wireless cards only. Another type of communication is called Infrastructure (using a wireless card and an access point). ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line Technology for transporting high bit-rate services over ordinary phone lines. AGP Accelerated Graphics Port Graphics port specifically designed for graphics-intensive devices, such as video cards and 3D accelerators. Auto/Airline Adapter A device which converts the DC voltage from an automobile cigarette lighter or aircraft DC power outlet to the DC voltage needed to power your LifeBook notebook. BIOS Basic Input-Output System. A program and set of default parameters stored in ROM which tests and operates your LifeBook notebook when you turn it on until it loads your installed operating system from disk. Information from the BIOS is transferred to the installed operating system to provide it with information on the configuration and status of the hardware. Bit An abbreviation for binary digit. A single piece of information which is either a one (1) or a zero (0). bps An abbreviation for bits per second. Used to describe data transfer rates. Boot To start-up a computer and load its operating system from disk, ROM or other storage media into RAM. Bus An electrical circuit which passes data between the CPU and the sub-assemblies inside your LifeBook notebook. Byte 8 bits of parallel binary information. Cache Memory A block of memory built into the micro-processor which is much faster to access than your system RAM and used in specially structured ways to make your overall data handling time faster. CardBus A faster, 32-bit version of the PC Card interface which offers performance similar to the 32-bit PCI architecture. CD-ROM Compact disk read only memory. This is a form of digital data storage which is read optically with a laser rather than a magnetic head. A typical CD-ROM can contain about 600MB of data and is not subject to heads crashing into the surface and destroying the data when there is a failure nor to wear from reading. Channel A radio frequency band used for communication between wireless cards and access points. CMOS RAM Complementary metal oxide semiconductor random access memory. This is a technology for manufacturing random access memory which requires very low levels of power to operate. Command An instruction which you give your operating system. Example: run a particular application or format a floppy disk. Configuration The combination of hardware and software that makes up your system and how it is allocated for use. CRT Cathode Ray Tube. A display device which uses a beam of electronic particles striking a luminescent screen. It produces a visual image by varying the position and intensity of the beam. 75