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Glossary
A
ANSI: American National Standards Institute - An organization for the development and publication of
standards such as computer interfaces.
ASPI: Advanced SCSI Programming Interface - An interface that enables a SCSI host adapter to handle
communication between applications and SCSI devices.
B
BIOS: Basic Input Output Services - The computer program which enables a computer system to use input and
output devices such as the keyboard, monitor, and disk drives. System BIOS is usually stored in ROM.
BLOCK SIZE: The number of bytes transferred to or from a device in a single operation.
BUS: The physical channel through which data transfer occurs in or between computer systems or peripherals.
BYTE: A common unit of computer storage. Made up of eight binary digits (bits). Typically the space occupied
by a single printed character.
C
CAM: Common Access Method - An interface that enables a SCSI host adapter to handle communication
between applications and SCSI devices.
CASCADE: Writing data to multiple output devices in sequence. As each device is filled the following device
begins recording. On systems with multiple tape drives, SnapBack can cascade data onto the first tape in
the SCSI chain until that tape is full, then to the second and so on.
CMOS: Non-volatile memory used to store system startup parameters.
COMPRESSION: Encoding of data to take up less storage space.
D
DASD: Direct Access Storage Device - A storage device which allows direct access to any location on the media
without traversing all intermediate locations. A hard drive is DASD, a tape drive is not.
DAT: Digital Auto Tape - A high capacity magnetic tape digital recording technology originally developed for
high fidelity audio.
DEVICE: A hardware peripheral connected to a computer system. Tape drives and hard disks are devices.
DEVICE DRIVER: Software that controls devices
DOS: Disk Operating System - A single user operating system for IBM Personal Computers or compatibles
F
FDISK: A DOS hard disk partitioning utility.
FILE SERVER: A computer which stores data files shared by other computers on a network.
G
GIGABYTE: GB, Gig - A little over a billion bytes or characters (a kilobyte cubed). Typically used to measure
file, device, and memory sizes.
H
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