Dell PowerEdge 2650 User Manual
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You can start your system from a bootable diskette. To make a bootable diskette, insert a diskette in the diskette drive, type sys a: at the command line
prompt, and press
bps
Abbreviation for bits per second.
BTU
Abbreviation for British thermal unit.
bus
An information pathway between the components of a system. Your system contains an expansion bus that allows the microprocessor to communicate with
controllers for all the various peripheral devices connected to the system. Your system also contains an address bus and a data bus for communications
between the microprocessor and RAM.
byte
Eight contiguous bits of information, the basic data unit used by your system.
C
Abbreviation for Celsius.
cache
A fast storage area that keeps a copy of data or instructions for quicker data retrieval. For example, your system's BIOS may cache ROM code in faster RAM.
Or, a disk-cache utility may reserve RAM in which to store frequently accessed information from your system's disk drives; when a program makes a request to
a disk drive for data that is in the cache, the disk-cache utility can retrieve the data from RAM faster than from the disk drive.
CD
Abbreviation for compact disc. CD drives use optical technology to read data from CDs. CDs are read-only storage devices; you cannot write new data to a CD
with standard CD drives.
COMn
The device names for the first through fourth serial ports on your system are COM1, COM2, COM3, and COM4. The default interrupt for COM1 and COM3 is
IRQ4, and the default interrupt for COM2 and COM4 is IRQ3. Therefore, you must be careful when configuring software that runs a serial device so that you
don't create an interrupt conflict.
component
As they relate to DMI, manageable components are operating systems, computer systems, expansion cards, and peripherals that are compatible with DMI.
Each component is made up of groups and attributes that are defined as relevant to that component.
controller
A chip that controls the transfer of data between the microprocessor and memory or between the micro-processor and a peripheral device such as a disk drive
or the keyboard.
control panel
The part of the system that contains indicators and controls, such as the power switch, hard drive access indicator, and power indicator.
conventional memory
The first 640 KB of RAM. Conventional memory is found in all systems. Unless they are specially designed, MS-DOS® programs are limited to running in
conventional memory.
coprocessor
A chip that relieves the system's microprocessor of specific processing tasks. A math coprocessor, for example, handles numeric processing. A graphics
coprocessor handles video rendering.
CPU
Abbreviation for central processing unit. See also microprocessor.
DC
Abbreviation for direct current.
DDR
Abbreviation for double-data rate.
device driver
A program that allows the operating system or some other program to interface correctly with a peripheral device, such as a printer. Some device drivers—
such as network drivers—must be loaded from the config.sys file (with a device= statement) or as memory-resident programs (usually, from the autoexec.bat
file). Others—such as video drivers—must load when you start the program for which they were designed.