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Dell OptiPlex GX240 User Manual

Page 275

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23

Boot Sequence

Allows you to specify the order of the devices from which the system attempts
to boot.

bps

Bits

per second. A measurement of data transmission speed.

Bps

Bytes

per second. A measurement of data transmission speed.

BTU

British Thermal Unit. A measurement of thermal energy that equals
approximately 1055 joules (or 1055 watt-seconds), or the amount of thermal
energy necessary to raise the temperature of one pound of pure liquid water
by one degree

F

at the temperature at which water has its greatest density

(39 °F).

Bus

An electronic pathway that links computer components such as the

microprocessor

,

RAM

,

expansion cards

, and so on. The “width” of a bus

indicates the amount of data that can move along the bus and is determined
by the number of parallel conductors in the bus. For example, a 32-bit bus
has 32 conductors and can move 32

bits

of data at once.

Bus Speed

The speed, given in

MHz

, that indicates how fast a

bus

can transfer

information. For example,

PCI

bus speeds are 33 or 66 MHz, and the

AGP

bus speed is 66 MHz. Intel Pentium®

microprocessors

have bus speeds of 66

or 100 MHz. The microprocessor operating speed is determined by a
combination of the bus speed and multiplier; for example, 100 MHz bus speed
x 4.5 multiplier = 450 MHz microprocessor speed.

Byte

A measurement of data storage that equals eight contiguous

bits

of

information.

C

Celsius. A measurement of temperature that equals the conversion formula
(Tf - 32) * (5 / 9), where Tf equals temperature in

F

.

Cache

An area of high-speed

RAM

set aside to store frequently accessed data. When

data is accessed, a copy is stored in cache memory. The next time the

microprocessor

looks for information, it first checks the cache. If the data is