Compaq 1200 - Manual (Page 147)

P RESARIO N OTEBOOK B EYOND S ETUP G UIDE G LOSSARY -13
1200 S ERIES
software The invisible code stored in
digital bits and bytes. It consists of a set of
instructions that tell the hardware what
tasks to perform. See digital.
See also program.
surf To jump from place to place on the
Internet, searching for topics of interest, by
clicking hyperlinks. Instead of searching
for specific information, surfing is an
undirected type of Web browsing. You
amuse yourself by clicking whatever
catches your fancy.
surge protector A device that protects a
computer from fluctuations in power. A
surge protector regulates the flow of
electricity to the computer and prevents
high-voltage surges from damaging
the equipment.
SVGA (super video graphics array)
A video display standard that offers greater
resolution and color depth than VGA. The
resolution (clarity and sharpness) of an
image is determined by the number of
pixels that can be displayed per square
inch. Color depth is determined by the
number of colors (from 256 to 16 million)
that can be displayed simultaneously. The
number of both pixels and colors is limited
by the amount of video memory on the
SVGA system. See pixel.
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taskbar See Windows taskbar.
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upload To send information to another
computer on the Internet.
UPS (uninterruptible power supply)
A device that provides a short-term backup
power supply, as well as surge protection.
URL (uniform resource locator) The
address of a Web site, such as
www.compaq.com.
USB port (universal serial bus port)
A connector for plugging in multiple,
ultra-high-speed peripherals. USB ports
are gradually replacing serial ports and
parallel ports and eliminating the need for
so many connectors and so many cables.
(Multiple USB peripherals can be linked
together in a chain to share the same port.)
Windows 98 included a built-in driver for
USB peripherals. Windows Millennium
supports a new USB standard that is 40
times faster than the previous standard. See
serial port and parallel port.
See also peripheral.
Usenet (users’ network) A world-wide
network of computers set up to transmit
messages to newsgroups. See newsgroups.