Glossary-2
bus
An electronic circuit within a computer used for transmitting data or electrical power from
one device to another.
busy lamp
Indicator on the front of the diskette drive that lights when the drive is writing to or reading
from a diskette.
byte
Group of eight contiguous bits.
chip
A small piece of semiconductor material, usually silicon, that contains miniaturized
electronic circuits.
CD-ROM reader
(compact disc, read-only memory) A device that uses laser technology to read data or play
audio stored on a CD.
clock
Electronic timer used to synchronize computer operations.
CMOS
Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor. A chip that contains nonvolatile memory.
CMOS is backed up by an internal lithium battery that preserves clock/calendar data and
system configuration parameters stored in CMOS.
cold boot
Process of starting up the computer by turning on the power. If power is already on, the
process means to turn off the computer and turn it on again. A cold boot reinitializes all
devices.
compact disk
(CD) A non-erasable storage disc that is read optically by means of a laser. Holds more than
500 megabytes of data.
