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Glossary 171
Glossary
A—Ampere(s).
AC — Alternating current.
ACPI — Advanced Configuration and Power Interface. A standard interface for
enabling the operating system to direct configuration and power management.
AMBIENT TEMPERATURE — The temperature of the area or room where the system is
located.
ANSI — American National Standards Institute. The primary organization for
developing technology standards in the U.S.
APPLICATION — Software designed to help you perform a specific task or series of
tasks. Applications run from the operating system.
ASCII — American Standard Code for Information Interchange.
ASSET TAG — An individual code assigned to a system, usually by an administrator,
for security or tracking purposes.
BACKUP — A copy of a program or data file. As a precaution, back up your system’s
hard drive on a regular basis. Before making a change to the configuration of your
system, back up important start-up files from your operating system.
BACKUP BATTERY — A battery that maintains system configuration, date, and time
information in a special section of memory when the system is turned off.
BEEP CODE — A diagnostic message in the form of a pattern of beeps from your
system’s speaker. For example, one beep, followed by a second beep, and then a burst
of three beeps is beep code 1-1-3.
BIOS — Basic input/output system. Your system’s BIOS contains programs stored on
a flash memory chip. The BIOS controls communications between the processor and
peripheral devices and miscellaneous functions, such as system messages
BIT — The smallest unit of information interpreted by your system.
BLADE — A module that contains a processor, memory, and a hard drive. The
modules are mounted into a chassis that includes power supplies and fans.
BMC — Baseboard management controller.
BOOT ROUTINE — A program that clears all memory, initializes devices, and loads the
operating system when you start your system. Unless the operating system fails to
respond, you can reboot (also called warm boot) your system by pressing