| Chapter 2 Vocab. Autoexe.bat- A startup text file once used by DOS and used by windows to provide backward-compatibility. Child Directory- See Subdirectory. Cluster- One or more sectors that constitute the smallest unit of space on a disk for storing data. CMOS setup-The program in system BIOS that can change the values in the CMOS RAM. Config.sys- A text file used by DOS and supported by Windows 9x/Me that lists device drivers to be loaded at startup. Desktop- The intial screen that is displayed when the OS has a GUI interface loaded. Device Driver- A program stored on the hard drive that tells the computer how to communicate with an I/O device. Direct Memory Access channel- DMA- A number identifying a channel whereby a device can pass data to memory without envolving the CPU. Directory Table- An OS table that contains file information such as size, name, time, ect. File Allocation Table- FAT- A table on a hard driveor floppy disk that tracks the clusters used to contain a file. File Extension- A three charater portion of the Name fil used to identify the type. E.g.: .bat, .jpg, .exe File system- the overall structure that an OS uses to store, name, and organize files on a disk. Folder- See Subdirectory Graphical User Interface- GUI- An icon driven interface with pictures. Hardware Compatilbility List- HCL- The list of all computers and personal devices that have been tested and are offically support by Windows NT/2000/XP Hardware Interrupt- an event caused by a harware device signalling the CPU that it requires service. I/O address- Numbers that are used by devices and the CPU to manage communication between them. Initialization Files- Configuration information files for Windows. Interrupt Request Line- IRQ- A line in a bus that is assigned to a device and used to signal the CPU forservicing. Logical Drive- A portion or all of a hard drive partition that is treated by the operating system as though it were a phyiscal drive. Memory Address- A number assigned to each bte in memory. Multitasking Doing more than one thing at a time. New Technology file System- NTFS- The file system for the Windows NT/2000/XP OS. Operating System- OS- Software that controls a computer. Partition- A division of a hard drive that can be used to hold logical drives. Path- A drive and list of directories pointing to a file such as C:\Windows\command. Polling- A process by which the CPU checks the status of a connected devices to determine if they are ready to send or receive data. Port Address- See I/O Address. HOME Page 1 Page 2 |