Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO
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# 31. Glossary

AGP

  Accelerated Graphics Port. A bus interconnect mechanism designed to improve performance of 3D graphics applications. AGP is a dedicated bus from the graphics subsystem to the core-logic chipset. here

ATAPI

  AT Attachment Packet Interface. A new protocol for controlling mass storage devices similar to SCSI protocols. It builds on the ATA (AT Attachment) interface, the official ANSI Standard name for the IDE interface developed for hard disk drives. ATAPI is commonly used for hard disks, CD-ROM drives, tape drives, and other devices.

ATM

  Asynchronous Transfer Mode

CDDA

  Compact Disk Digital Audio. Capability of CD-ROM/Writer to read out audio tracks.

DMA

  Direct Memory Access

EGA

  Enhanced Graphics Adapter

EIDE

  Enhanced IDE

EISA

  Extended Industry System Architecture

FDDI

  Fiber Distributed Data Interface. High-speed ring local area network.

IDE

  Integrated Drive Electronics. Each drive has a built-in controller.

ISA

  Industry System Architecture

ISDN

  Integrated Services Digital Network

MCA

  MicroChannel Architecture

MFM

  Modified Frequency Modulation

MMX

  Multimedia Extensions. Extra instructions meant to speed multimedia.

PCI

  Pheripheral Component Interconnect. 32-bit bus designed by Intel. Information can be found here.

RAID

  Redudant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks. The basic idea of RAID is to combine multiple small, inexpensive disk drives into an array of disk drives which yields performance exceeding that of a single large expensive drive. There are five types of redundant array Architectures; RAID-1 through RAID-5. A non-redudant array of disk drives is referred to as RAID-0. Some RAID systems can mix formats. (more info)

PPA

  Printing Performance Architecture. Protocol developed by Hewlett Packard for their series of Deskjet printers. In essence, the protocol moves the low-level processing of the data to the host computer rather than the printer. This allows for a low-cost printer with a small amount of memory and computing power and a flexible driver. However, this comes at the price of compatibility. HP's decision was to develop drivers only for Windows 95 for this printer.

RLL

  Run Length Limited

SATA

  Serial ATA. Basically IDE over a much smaller cable. See SerialATA.Org for more information.

SCSI

  Small Computer Systems Interface. A standerd interface defined for all devices in a computer. It make it possible to use a single adapter for all devices. (more info)

SVGA

  Super Video Graphics Adapter

UART

  Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter

USB

  Universal Serial Bus.

VGA

  Video Graphics Adapter

VLB

  VESA Local Bus. Used in some 486 PC's.

WORM

  Write Once Read Many

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