Promise Technology 66 Pro - Manual (Page 150)

SuperTrak66™ User's Manual Appendix G
G-1
Glossary of Terms
API
Application Programming Interface: A software layer which provides a
common method of accessing several types of hardware or other
software that it supports. APIs reduce the technical expertise needed
for applications to be able to support a wide array of hardware devices
and software packages directly.
array As used in RAID, an array consists of one or more hard drives which
are logically combined to form a single storage drive. Arrays are
categorized by the method in which they are accessed to logically
organize data on them for purposes of performance enhancement,
capacity augmentation, and/or data redundancy protection.
ATA AT Attachment: A standard for interfacing peripheral devices to
“PC/AT compatible” machines.
BIOS Basic Input/Output Set: Typically a set of system instructions stored
in ROM or NVRAM that contain a rudimentary foundation for system
initialization and operation. These programs provide just enough
support to allow an O/S to load and take over the PC operations, or to
provide a backward-compatible API to interface with new types of
devices to a system otherwise unsuited to handle such devices.
bit The fundamental representation of a numeric digit in the binary (base 2)
numbering system. A bit consists of the value 1 or 0 (also referenced
as “ON/OFF” and “TRUE/FALSE”, respectively). By grouping bits
together, the combinations of values that the bit groups represent
increase exponentially, forming the basis of binary numbering. The
most basic access to a collection of bits is a byte.
boot A term describing the process of a computer system initializing itself
and loading an O/S from a disk drive, network connection, or other
source.
bootstrap The first sector of a partition containing executable machine code
information. The machine code contained here provides enough
instruction to tell the system how to begin loading the rest of the O/S
from disk to memory. If there is no O/S installed on a drive, this sector
usually contains code which prints a message “Insert system disk..”
or similar. Often, a program called a “boot manager” may be installed
onto a drive which installs itself to give the operator further O/S loading
options from various drive partitions in the system.
byte The most basic data chunk that is directly accessible to i80x86
microprocessors (and many others). A byte consists of exactly 8 bits.