Glossary: Dell Latitude ATG D620 User's Guide
P
parallel connector
— An I/O port often used to connect a parallel printer to your computer. Also
referred to as an
LPT port
.
partition
— A physical storage area on a hard drive that is assigned to one or more logical storage
areas known as logical drives. Each partition can contain multiple logical drives.
PC Card
— A removable I/O card adhering to the PCMCIA standard. Modems and network adapters
are common types of PC Cards.
PCI
— peripheral component interconnect — PCI is a local bus that supports 32-and 64-bit data paths,
providing a high-speed data path between the processor and devices such as video, drives, and
networks.
PCI Express
— A modification to the PCI interface that boosts the data transfer rate between the
processor and the devices attached to it. PCI Express can transfer data at speeds from 250 MB/sec to
4 GB/sec. If the PCI Express chip set and the device are capable of different speeds, they will operate
at the slower speed.
PCMCIA
— Personal Computer Memory Card International Association — The organization that
establishes standards for PC Cards.
PIO
— programmed input/output — A method of transferring data between two devices through the
processor as part of the data path.
pixel
— A single point on a display screen. Pixels are arranged in rows and columns to create an
image. A video resolution, such as 800 x 600, is expressed as the number of pixels across by the
number of pixels up and down.
Plug-and-Play
— The ability of the computer to automatically configure devices. Plug and Play
provides automatic installation, configuration, and compatibility with existing hardware if the BIOS,
operating system, and all devices are Plug and Play compliant.
POST
— power-on self-test — Diagnostics programs, loaded automatically by the BIOS, that perform
basic tests on the major computer components, such as memory, hard drives, and video. If no
problems are detected during POST, the computer continues the start-up.
processor
— A computer chip that interprets and executes program instructions. Sometimes the
processor is referred to as the CPU (central processing unit).
PS/2
— personal system/2 — A type of connector for attaching a PS/2-compatible keyboard, mouse,
or keypad.
PXE
— pre-boot execution environment — A WfM (Wired for Management) standard that allows
networked computers that do not have an operating system to be configured and started remotely.
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