Lenovo ThinkPad 380ED ThinkPad 380 and 380D User's Guide - Page 237

Glossary This glossary includes terms and definitions from the IBM Dictionary of Computing (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994). ac. Alternating current. ac power. Power that is supplied to the computer through an electrical outlet. Advanced Power Management (APM). A facility consisting of one or more layers of software that support power management in computers with power manageable hardware. The APM software interface allows applications, operating systems, device drivers, and the APM BIOS to work together to reduce power consumption, without reducing system performance. ANSI. American National Standards Institute. APM. Advanced Power Management. application program. A program that performs specific tasks on your computer, such as word processing or creating spreadsheets. ASCII. American National Standard Code for Information Interchange. ATA PC Card. A PC Card with an AT attachment hard disk drive interface such as a storage device PC Card. AUTOEXEC.BAT. A file that contains a startup procedure of DOS. Each time you start your system, DOS performs the commands that are stored in this file. backup copy. A copy, usually of a file or group of files, that is kept in case the original file or files are unintentionally changed or destroyed. batch. A process method in which a program or programs records with little or no operator action. BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). Microcode that contains such basic hardware operations as interactions with diskette drives, hard disk drives, and the keyboard. bitmap graphics. (1) A form of graphics in which all points on the display are directly addressable. (2) In multimedia applications, a form of graphics in an area of computer memory or storage that can be displayed as an image. boot. To prepare a computer system for operation by loading an operating system. bps. Bits per second. In serial transmission, the instantaneous bit speed with which a device or channel transmits a character. bus. A facility for transferring data between several devices located between two end points, only one device being able to transmit at a given moment. cache memory. A special memory, smaller and faster than main memory, that is used to hold a copy of instructions and data in main memory that are likely to be needed next by the processor, and that have been obtained automatically from main memory. CD-i. Compact disc-interactive. combination keys. Keys that have specific functions when you hold them down at the same time. CONFIG.SYS. A file that contains a group of commands to load installable device drivers and reserve space in system memory for information processing. This file is referred to by DOS during system startup. configuration. (1) The manner in which the hardware and software of an Copyright IBM Corp. 1996 217