Glossary Of PC Terms

Thanks to Forum Members Shadow ÒÓ (aka John Whitefield) and Andrew Cotterill for starting this list. Be sure to check out Shadow’s website and Andy’s website.

If you have a term that you want to add or want like to see added,
drop us a line.

AGP – Accelerated Graphics Port (strictly for video cards)

ATA – Advanced Technology Attachment

BIOS – Basic Input / Output System (on bootup you can access it usually with the “del” key or F10 key)

CACHE – A special high-speed storage mechanism. It can be either a reserved section of main memory or an independent high-speed storage device. Two types of caching are commonly used in personal computers: memory caching and disk caching.

cBO – The stepping of P3 that failed to reach 1Ghz

cCO – The embarrasment of the decade when Intel had to remove it’s 1.13Ghz chips from the market place as they weren’t fit for the speed.

COLD BOOT – The reboot of a computer by electrical switch. (actually shutting off the power).

CPU – Central Processing Unit (main processor for your system)

DIMM – Dual Inline Memory Module.

EB – Denotes a Coppermine processor running on a 133Mhz bus. E meant coppermine and B meant Bus!

ECC Error – Correcting Code memory, a type of memory that includes special circuitry for testing the accuracy of data as it passes in and out of memory.

FC – Flip Chip.

FCPGA – Flip Chip Pin Grid Array. Intel named it the “flip chip” because because the chip is upside down on the socket compared to earlier chips.

FSB – Front Side Bus.

FPS (not the games) Floating Point Scheduler.

FPS (the games) Frames per second.

FPS (also the Games) – First Person Shooter.

FPU – Floating Point Unit a specially designed chip that performs floating-point calculations. Computers equipped with an FPU perform certain types of applications much faster than computers that lack one. In particular, graphics applications are faster with an FPU.

GHZ Gigahertz = 1000 Megahertz.

GPU – Graphical Processing Unit (processor on your video card)

HD – Hard Drive.

HSF – Heat Sink & Fan.

ISA – Industry Standard Architechture (old school and runs at 1/2 the speed of PCI).

LNK = Lovely New Kit – New hardware that enhances a user’s computer, life and brag factor!

MHZ – MegaHertz.

MOBO – Motherboard.

MTBF = Mean Time Before Failure – The average time (in hours usually) you can expect a hard-disk/Cd-Rom drive to work before it dies.

OEM – Original Equipment Manufacturer destined – a chip or component is OEM when it doesn’t come in fancy retail packaging and is usually in a white box. Usually cheaper as a consequence. These articles aren’t meant for retail sale – but they end up there.

OS – Operating System.

PARITY – Comparing data for odd or even numbers. Used for error correction.

PCI – Peripheral Component Interface.

PSU or PS – Power Supply Unit.

PS2 – Not a Playstation2 – but relates to a range of IBM PCs from the early nineties that used their own kind of connectors instead of AT type connectors for keyboards and serial connectors for mice.

PPGA – Plastic Pin Grid Array.

RAID – Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (system to use several disk to secure against data loss and speed data access).

Retail – This is the fancy box and full mfg warranty. Intel chips have a 3 year warranty where OEM is anywhere from a week to a year.

SCSI – Small Computer System Interface. Much faster and more expensive. Replaces IDE but usually is only commercially used.

SIMM – Single Inline Memory Module.

Soft Boot – To force a reboot of the computer by software command – this may be by Ctrl+Alt+Del or by a command or simply Start….Shutdown….Restart. Rebooting w/o actually shutting down power to the system.

Socket 370 – The Intel socket that originated as home for the Celeron PGA and is now home for coppermine celerons and P3’s. Will soon become home to Tualatin.

Socket A – The socket of the Duron, Thunderbird and soon the Morgan, Palamino and Mustang.

Slocket – An adapter to enable the use of socket 370 PPGA or FCPGA chips in a slot 1 motherboard environment.

Slot 1 – A 242pin slot adapter for Celerons, Pentium 2’s and 3’s.

Socket 7 – A 321 pin socket that formed the home of chips from Pentium classics, Cyrix UDMA – Ultra Direct Memory Access
6×86 chips, Winchips and AMD K6 series chips. Now obsoleted officially.

Vcore – Core Voltage of the CPU.

USB – Universal Serial Bus.


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