| A | B |
|---|
| AGP | architecture that is based on the PCI archetecture and is designed specifically to speed up 3D graphics |
| VL-bus | a peripherial bus from VESA that was primarily used in 486s and provides a high-speed datapath between the CPU peripherals |
| load | power consumption of a device |
| PCI bus | a peripheral bus commonly used in PCs that provides a high-speed datapath between the CPU and peripheral devices |
| micro channel architechture bus | a proprietary 32-bit bus from IBM that was used in PS/2 RS/6000 and certain ES/9370 models |
| bus master | takes control of the bus away from the CPU to transfer dates derectly to RAM or other devices |
| EISA bus | PC bus standard that extends the 16-bit ISA bus to 32 bits and provides bus mastering |
| UMB | an unused blocks in the upper memory area |
| TSR | a program that always stays in memory |
| DMA | specialized circuitry or a dedicated microprocessor that transfers data from adapters to memory without using the CPU |
| adapter | a device that allows one system to connect to and work with another, an adapter is often a simple circuit that converts one set of signals to another |
| interrupt | a signal that gets the attention of the CPU and is usually generated when I/O is required |
| adapter card | add-on boards or cards that provide special functions for customizing or extending a computers capability |
| I/O address | a three-digit hexadecimal number used to identify and signal a peripheral device like a serial port parallel port or sound card |
| base memory address | the memory address of any memory that might be on the adapter card |
| ISA bus | an expansion bus commonly used in PCs |
| VLSI | the process of placing thousands of electronic components on a single chip |
| jumper | a small plug placed over pins to configure hardware settings |
| hardware interrupt | an interrupt caused by some action of a hardware device such as a keystoke or mouse movement |
| exception interrupt | an interrupt used by the processor to handle errors |
| software interrupt | an interrupt caused by an instruction in a software program |
| IRQ | a hardware interrupt on a PC |
