Dell Precision 420 - Manual (Page 44)

Desktop Management Interface. DMI enables the management of your computer system's software and hardware. DMI collects information about
the system's components, such as the operating system, memory, peripheral devices, expansion cards, and asset tag. Information about the
system's components is displayed as a MIF file or through the Dell Inspector program.
DMTF
Desktop Management Task Force. A consortium of companies representing hardware and software providers, of which Dell Computer
Corporation is a member.
dpi
dots per inch
DPMS
Display Power Management Signaling. A standard developed by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) that defines the hardware
signals sent by a video controller to activate power management states in a monitor. A monitor is said to be DPMS-compliant when it is designed
to enter a power management state after receiving the appropriate signal from a computer's video controller.
DRAM
dynamic random-access memory. A computer's RAM is usually made up entirely of DRAM chips. Because DRAM chips cannot store an electrical
charge indefinitely, your computer continually refreshes each DRAM chip in the computer.
drive-type number
Your computer can recognize a number of specific hard-disk drives. Each is assigned a drive-type number that is stored in NVRAM. The hard-disk
drive(s) specified in your computer's System Setup program must match the actual drive(s) installed in the computer. The System Setup program
also allows you to specify physical parameters (logical cylinders, logical heads, cylinder number, and logical sectors per pack) for drives not
included in the table of drive types stored in NVRAM.
DSP
digital signal processing
DTE
data terminal equipment. Any device, such as a computer system, that can send data in digital form by means of a cable or communications line.
The DTE is connected to the cable or communications line through a data communications equipment (DCE) device such as a modem.
E
ECC
error checking and correction
ECP
Extended Capabilities Port
EEPROM
electrically erasable programmable read-only memory
EIDE
enhanced integrated drive electronics. EIDE devices add one or more of the following enhancements to the traditional IDE standard:
l Data transfer rates of up to 16 MB/sec
l Support for drives other than just hard-disk drives, such as CD-ROM and tape drives
l Support for hard-disk drives with capacities greater than 528 MB
l
Support for up to two controllers, each with up to two devices attached
EISA
Extended Industry-Standard Architecture, a 32-bit expansion-bus design. The expansion-card connectors in an EISA computer are also
compatible with 8- or 16-bit ISA expansion cards.
To avoid a configuration conflict when installing an EISA expansion card, you must use the EISA Configuration Utility. This utility allows you to
specify which expansion slot contains the card and obtains information about the card's required system resources from a corresponding EISA
configuration file.