Dell PowerEdge 1750 User Manual

Page 22

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Abbreviation for bits per second.

BTU

 

Abbreviation for British thermal unit.

bus

 

An information pathway between the components of a system. Your system contains an expansion bus that allows the microprocessor to communicate with

controllers for all the various peripheral devices connected to the system. Your system also contains an address bus and a data bus for communications
between the microprocessor and RAM.

byte

 

Eight contiguous bits of information, the basic data unit used by your system.

C

 

Abbreviation for Celsius.

cache

 

A fast storage area that keeps a copy of data or instructions for quicker data retrieval. For example, your system's BIOS may cache ROM code in faster RAM.

Or, a disk-cache utility may reserve RAM in which to store frequently accessed information from your system's disk drives; when a program makes a request to
a disk drive for data that is in the cache, the disk-cache utility can retrieve the data from RAM faster than from the disk drive.

CD

 

Abbreviation for compact disc. CD drives use optical technology to read data from CDs. CDs are read-only storage devices; you cannot write new data to a CD

with standard CD drives.

COMn

 

The device names for the first through fourth serial ports are COM1, COM2, COM3, and COM4. The default interrupt for COM1 and COM3 is IRQ4, and the

default interrupt for COM2 and COM4 is IRQ3. Therefore, you must be careful when configuring software that runs a serial device so that you don't create an
interrupt conflict.

controller

 

A chip that controls the transfer of data between the microprocessor and memory or between the micro-processor and a peripheral device such as a disk

drive or the keyboard.

control panel

 

The part of the system that contains indicators and controls, such as the power switch, hard drive access indicator, and power indicator.

CPU

 

Abbreviation for central processing unit. See microprocessor.

DC

 

Abbreviation for direct current.

DDR

 

Abbreviation for double-data rate.

device driver

 

A program that allows the operating system or some other program to interface correctly with a peripheral device, such as a printer. 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.

DHCP

 

Acronym for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol.

diagnostics

 

A comprehensive set of tests for your system. See your Installation and Troubleshooting Guide for more information about using diagnostics.

DIMM

 

Acronym for dual in-line memory module. A small circuit board containing DRAM chips that connects to the system board.

DIN

 

Acronym for Deutsche Industrie Norm.

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