Dell PowerEdge 6400 - Manual (Page 12)

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Glossary: Dell™ PowerEdge™ 6400 Systems User's Guide
A • B • C • D • E • F • G • H • I • J • K • L • M • N • O • P • Q • R • S • T • U • V • W • X • Y • Z
A
A
ampere(s)
AC
alternating current
adapter card
An expansion card that plugs into an expansion-card connector on the computer's system board. An adapter card adds some specialized function
to the computer by providing an interface between the expansion bus and a peripheral device. Examples of adapter cards include network cards,
sound cards, and SCSI adapters.
ADC
analog-to-digital converter
ADI
Autodesk Device Interface
AI
artificial intelligence
ANSI
American National Standards Institute
application program
Software designed to help you perform a specific task, such as a spreadsheet or word processor. Application programs are distinct from
operating system and utility software.
ASCII
American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A text file containing only characters from the ASCII character set (usually created with a text
editor, such as MS-DOS Editor or Notepad in Windows
®), is called an ASCII file.
ASIC
application-specific integrated circuit
ASPI ®
Advanced SCSI Programming Interface
autoexec.bat file
When you boot your computer, MS-DOS runs any commands contained in the text file, autoexec.bat (after running any commands in the
config.sys file). An autoexec.bat file is not required to boot MS-DOS, but provides a convenient place to run commands that are essential for
setting up a consistent computing environment
—such as loading mouse or network software.
B
backup
A copy of a program or data file. As a precaution, you should back up your computer's hard-disk drive on a regular basis. Before making a change
to the configuration of your computer, you should back up important start-up files, such as autoexec.bat and config.sys for MS-DOS or win.ini
and system.ini for Windows.