Glossary – Dell OptiPlex GX240 User Manual

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Glossary

Ampere. A measurement of current in an electrical conductor.

Alternating current. Electricity that reverses its direction at a rate of 60 times
per second (50 times per second in some countries). See

Accelerator

A computer component that enhances the processing speed of a particular

device

, usually by taking over some of the tasks originally assigned by that

device. For example, a video accelerator card will take over some of the graphic
functions originally assigned to the

microprocessor

ACPI

Advanced Configuration and Power Interface. An industry standard developed
by Intel

, Microsoft

, and Toshiba for computer power management. The

key element of the standard is that the

controls power management. In

previous standards, most of the power management tasks were run by the

BIOS

, with limited intervention by the OS. In ACPI, the BIOS communicates

with hardware components in the computer, but the OS controls power
management operations.

AGP

Accelerated graphics port. A high-speed graphics port that produces fast
communication between the graphics controller and computer. It allows the
video controller to directly access the computer's main memory and bypass
the

PCI

bus. A video

expansion card

installed in this port can run almost

twice as fast as that in a PCI slot. This also helps to reduce the traffic on the
PCI bus.

ANSI

American National Standards Institute. An organization that publishes
standards for data alphabets, codes, and signaling schemes. See

ISO