Toshiba SATELLITE A500 - Manual (Page 229)

User’s Manual Glossary-13
A500/A500D series
software: The set of programs, procedures and related documentation
associated with a computer system. Specifically refers to computer
programs that direct and control the computer system’s activities.
See also hardware.
stop bit: One or more bits of a byte that follow the transmitted character or
group codes in asynchronous serial communications.
synchronous: Having a constant time interval between successive bits,
characters or events.
system disk: A diskette that contains the operating system files needed to
start the computer. Any diskette can be formatted as a system disk.
A system disk is also called a “bootable disk”, “boot disk” or a
“startup disk.” Compare non-system disk.
T
telephony: the transmission of speech or sounds between two distant
points with or without the use of wires, particularly a telephone.
terminal: A typewriter-like keyboard and CRT display screen connected to
the computer for data input/output.
TFT display: A liquid crystal display (LCD) made from an array of liquid
crystal cells using active-matrix technology with thin film transistor
(TFT) to drive each cell.
Touch Pad: A pointing device integrated into the TOSHIBA computer palm
rest.
U
USB: Universal Serial Bus. This serial interface lets you communicate with
several devices connected in a chain to a single port on the
computer.
V
VGA: Video Graphics Array is an industry standard video adaptor that lets
you run any popular software.
volatile memory: Random access memory (RAM) that stores information
as long as power is supplied to the computer.
W
warm start: Restarting or resetting a computer without turning it off.
Wi-Fi
® : A registered trademark term of the Wi-Fi Alliance that stands for
Wireless Fidelity, and is another term for the communication
protocol to permit an Ethernet connection using wireless
communication components.
window: A portion of the screen that can display its own application,
document or dialog box. Often used to mean a Microsoft Windows
window.