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SECTION 3
PCMCIA
PCMCIA is trademark of the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association. The Personal
Computer Memory Card International Association is an organization that sets standards for add-in
cards for personal computers.
Peripheral Device
A piece or equipment which performs a specific function associated with but not integral to a computer.
Examples: a printer, a mode, a CD-ROM.
Pitch (keyboard)
The distance between the centers of the letter keys of a keyboard.
Pixel
The smallest element of a display, a dot of color on your display screen. The more pixels screen. The
more pixels per area the clearer your image will appear.
POST
Power On Self Test. A program which part of the BIOS which checks the configuration and operating
condition of your hardware whenever power is applied to your notebook. Status and error messages
may be displayed before the operating system is loaded. If the self test detects failures that are so
serious that operation can not continue, the operating system will not be loaded.
Disk
A spinning platter of magnetic data storage media. If the platter is very stiff it is a hard drive, if it is
highly flexible it is a floppy disk, if it is a floppy disk in a hard housing with a shutter it is commonly
called diskette.
Disk Drive
The hardware which spins the disk and has the heads and control circuitry for reading and writing the
data on the disk.
Diskette
A floppy disk in a hard housing with a shutter.
DMA
Direct Memory Access. Special circuitry for memory to memory transfer of data which do not require
CPU action.
DMI
Desktop Management Interface. A standard that provides PC management applications with a common
method of locally or remotely querying and configuring PC computer systems hardware and software
components, and peripherals.
DOS
Disk Operating System (MS-DOS is a Microsoft Disk Operating System).
