Dell Serial Attached SCSI 5iR Integrated and Adapter User Manual
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Glossary
Driver
A device driver, often called a driver for short, is a
program that allows the operating system or some other
program to interface correctly with a peripheral device
such as a printer or network PC card. Some device
drivers, such as network drivers must be loaded from
the config.sys file (with a device= statement) or as
memory-resident programs (usually, from the
autoexec.bat file). Others such as video drivers must
load when you start the program for which they were
designed.
DUD (Driver Update Diskette)
Acronym for driver update diskette. A DUD is an image
of a diskette stored as a regular file. To use it, you have to
create a real diskette from this file. The steps used to
create the diskette depend on how the image is supplied.
F
Firmware
Software stored in read-only memory (ROM) or
Programmable ROM (PROM). Firmware is often
responsible for the behavior of a system when it is first
turned on. A typical example would be a monitor
program in a system that loads the full operating
system from disk or from a network and then passes
control to the operating system.
Flash Memory
Sometimes referred as simply "flash", is a compact,
solid-state, rewriteable, non-volatile memory device that
retains its data when the power is turned off. It offers fast
access time, low power consumption, and relative
immunity to severe shock or vibration. It is a special type
of EEPROM that can be erased and reprogrammed in
blocks instead of one byte at a time. Many modern PCs
have their BIOS stored on a flash memory chip so that it
can easily be updated if necessary. Such a BIOS is
sometimes called a flash BIOS.
H
Hardware
The mechanical, magnetic, electronic, and electrical
components making up a computer system
constitutes its hardware.
Hot Add/Remove
It is the addition/removal of a component while the
system is running and operating normally.
L
Link
A connection between any two PCI Express devices is
known as a link.
M
MHz
Megahertz or one million cycles per second is a unit
of frequency commonly used to measure the
operating speed of a computer processor or any other
electronic component.
Mirroring
The process of providing complete redundancy using
two physical disks, by maintaining an exact copy of
one physical disk’s data on the second physical disk.
If one physical disk fails, the contents of the other
physical disk can be used to maintain the integrity of
the system and to rebuild the failed physical disk.
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