Appendix B -- Table of Acronyms

[Previous] [Next]

This appendix presents many of the acronyms used in this book. Be aware that—as with all acronyms—some have more than one meaning, depending on the context.

AC	Alternating current
AGP	Accelerated Graphics Port
ALU	Arithmetic logic unit
ANSI	American National Standards Institute
ASCII	American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ASPI	Advanced SCSI Programming Interface
BBS	Bulletin board system
BIOS	Basic input/output system
BPS (bps)	Bits per second
CAM	Common Access Method
CCITT	Comité Consultatif Télégraphique et Téléphonique
CD-ROM	Compact disc read-only memory
CGA	Color/Graphics Adapter
CHS	Cylinder head sector
CISC	Complex instruction set computing
CMOS	Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor
COM port	Serial communications port
CPU	Central processing unit
CRT	Cathode-ray tube
DC	Direct current
DDE	Dynamic Data Exchange
DIMM	Dual inline memory module
DIPP	Dual inline pin package
DLL	Dynamic link library
DMA	Direct memory access
DOS	Disk operating system
dpi	Dots per inch
DPMI	MS-DOS Protected Mode Interface
DPMS	Display Power Management Signaling
DRAM	Dynamic random access memory
DTE	Data Terminal Equipment
DVD	Digital video disc
EDB	External data bus
EDO	Extended data out
EGA	Enhanced Graphics Adapter
EIDE	Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics
EISA	Extended Industry Standard Architecture
EMI	Electromagnetic interference
EMS	Expanded Memory Specification
ESD	Electrostatic discharge
ESDI	Enhanced Small Device Interface
ETX	End-of-text
FAT	File allocation table
FPM	Fast-page mode
FTP	File Transfer Protocol
GB	Gigabyte
GDI	Graphical Device Interface
GPF	General Protection Fault
GUI	Graphical user interface
HMA	High memory area
HRR	Horizontal refresh rate
HTTP	HyperText Transfer Protocol
I/O	Input/output
IDE	Integrated Drive Electronics or Integrated Device Electronics
IEEE	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IOR	Input/output read wire
IOW	Input/output write wire
IP	Internet Protocol
IPX/SPX	Internetwork Packet Exchange/Sequenced Packet Exchange
IRQ	Interrupt request
ISA	Industry Standard Architecture
ISDN	Integrated Services Digital Network
ISO	International Organization for Standardization (often incorrectly identified as International Standardization Organization)
ISP	Internet service provider
ITU-T	International Telecommunications Union—Telecommunication Standardization Sector
KB	Kilobyte
LAN	Local area network
LBA	Logical Block Addressing
LIM	Lotus/Intel/Microsoft
LPT	Line printer
MB	Megabyte
MCA	Micro Channel Architecture
MCC	Memory controller chip
MDA	Monochrome Display Adapter
MDRAM	Multibank DRAM
MFM	Modified frequency modulation
MHz	Megahertz
MOS	Metal-oxide semiconductor
MSD	Microsoft Diagnostics
MTBF	Mean time between failures
NDIS	Network Driver Interface Specification
NetBIOS/NetBEUI	Networked Basic Input/Output System/NetBIOS Enhanced User Interface
NIC	Network interface card
NTSC	National Television Standards Committee
OLE	Object linking and embedding
PC	Personal Computer
PCI	Peripheral Component Interconnect
PDI	Post DMA-IRQ card
PDL	Page-description language
PGA	Pin grid array or Professional Graphics Adapter
PIO	Programmed Input/Output
PLCC	Plastic leadless chip carrier
PM	Preventive maintenance
POST	Power-on self test
POTS	Plain Old Telephone Service
PPP	Point-to-Point Protocol
PPTP	Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol
PQFP	Plastic Quad Flat Pack
RAID	Redundant array of independent disks
RAM	Random access memory
RISC	Reduced Instruction Set Computing
RLL	Run-length limited
ROM	Read-only memory
SCSI	Small Computer System Interface
SDRAM	Synchronous dynamic random access memory
SGRAM	Synchronous Graphics RAM
SIMM	Single inline memory module
SIPP	Single inline pin package
SMM	System Management Mode
SPA	Software Publishers Association
SRAM	Static random access memory
TB	Terabyte
TCP/IP	Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
TSR	Terminate-and-stay-resident program
UART	Universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter
UMB	Upper memory block
UPS	Uninterruptible power supply
USB	Universal serial bus
VESA	Video Electronics Standards Association
VGA	Video Graphics Adapter
VLB	VESA local bus
VOM	Volt ohm meter
VPN	Virtual private network
VRR	Vertical refresh rate
WAN	Wide area network
WRAM	Window random access memory
XMS	Extended memory specification
ZIF	Zero insertion force