Dell Inspiron 2000 - Manual (Page 37)

A physical storage area on a hard-disk drive that is assigned to one or more logical storage areas known as logical drives. Each partition can contain multiple logical drives.
After partitioning the hard-disk drive, you must logically format the drive.
See also logical formatting .
PC Card
Slightly larger than a credit card, a PC Card is a removable I/O card, such as a modem, LAN, SRAM, or flash memory card, that adheres to the PCMCIA standards. PC
Cards are sometimes referred to as PCMCIA cards.
PC Card types
Because a Type III card is thicker than Type I and Type II cards, it takes up the entire PC Card slot, although it uses only one PC Card connector. Your computer does not
support Type III PC Cards.
PCI
Abbreviation for Peripheral Component Interconnect. A standard for local-bus implementation developed by Intel Corporation.
PCMCIA
Abbreviation for Personal Computer Memory Card International Association.
PIO
Abbreviation for Programmed I/O.
pixel
A single point on a video display. Pixels are arranged in rows and columns to create an image. A video resolution, such as 800 x 600, is expressed as the number of pixels
across by the number of pixels up and down.
Plug and Play
An industry-standard specification that makes it easier to add devices to your personal computer. Plug and Play provides automatic installation and configuration,
compatibility with existing hardware, and dynamic support of mobile computing environments.
POST
Acronym for power-on self-test. Before the operating system loads when you turn on your computer, the POST tests various system components, such as RAM, the disk
drives, and the keyboard.
PS/2
Abbreviation for Personal System/2.
RAM
Acronym for random-access memory. The computer's primary temporary storage area for program instructions and data. Each location in RAM is identified by a number
called a memory address. Any information stored in RAM is lost when you turn off your computer.
read-only
A read-only file is one that you are prohibited from editing or deleting. A file can have read-only status if:
l Its read-only attribute is enabled.
l It resides on a physically write-protected diskette or on a diskette in a write-protected drive.
l It is located on a network in a directory to which the system administrator has assigned read-only rights to you.
readme file
A text file included with a software package or hardware product that contains information updating or supplementing the documentation for the software or hardware.
Typically, readme files provide installation information, describe new product enhancements or corrections that have not yet been documented, and list known problems or
other things you need to be aware of as you use the software or hardware.
refresh rate
The rate at which the monitor redraws the video image on the monitor screen. More precisely, the refresh rate is the frequency, measured in Hz, at which the screen's
horizontal lines are recharged (sometimes also referred to as its vertical frequency). The higher the refresh rate, the less video flicker can be seen by the human eye.