Toshiba Tecra 8000 Tecra 8000 Users Guide - Page 259

235 Glossary Advanced Power Management: An industry standard for taking advantage of a computer's power-saving features. allocate: To assign space or resources for a specific task. Often used to refer to the use of memory or disk space. alphanumeric: Consisting of letters, numbers and other symbols you can type or print. alternating current (AC): Electric current that reverses its direction at regular intervals. This type of power is usually supplied to residential and commercial wall outlets. American National Standards Institute (ANSI) character set: The set of characters available in Microsoft Windows (or other operating system). The character set includes letters, numbers, symbols and foreign language characters. American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII): A set of 256 binary codes that represent the most commonly used letters, numbers and symbols. See also binary. application: A computer program that you use to perform tasks of a specific type. Applications include word processors, spreadsheets and database management systems. See also program. asynchronous: A type of data transmission in which information is sent at variable time intervals. To indicate when a transmitted character begins and ends, it is preceded by a start bit and followed by an optional parity bit and one or two stop bits. See also synchronous. AUTOEXEC.BAT: A batch file containing MS-DOS commands that the computer performs every time you start or restart it. For example, your computer's original AUTOEXEC.BAT file contains commands that load the Windows operating system. See also batch file. AVI (Audio Video Interleaved): Microsoft Corporation's trade name for synchronization and digital compression of video and audio signals. B backup: A copy of a file, usually on removable disk or tape, kept in case the original file is lost or damaged. It's a good idea to keep backup copies of all your important files. base memory: See conventional memory. Part III: Appendixes