BASICS

OS Operating System (e.g.   DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Novell NetWare, OS/2, SCO Unix, Banyan Vines, ..)
ROM Read-Only Memory 
BIOS Basic Input Output System 
CPU The microchip or Central Processing Unit 
Byte and bitsJust as a word is made up of letters, a byte is made up of bits. While words have a variable number of letters, all bytes have eight bits. A bit represents a positive or negative electric charge. The computer interprets these electric states as either the digits 0 (negative charge) or 1 (positive charge). These are the only two digits the computer can understand. Because of this, computers work on a binary number system, instead of the decimal system we are used to. The word bit stands for binary digit.

8 bits = 1 byte

1,024 bytes = 1 kilobyte (K)

1,024 kilobytes - 1 megabyte (MB)

1,024 megabytes = 1 gigabyte (GB)

1,024 gigabytes = 1 terabyte (TB)

kilo-     k 1000^1 1024^1 = 2^10 = 1,024
mega- M 1000^2 1024^2 = 2^20 = 1,048,576
giga-   G 1000^3 1024^3 = 2^30 = 1,073,741,824
tera-    T 1000^4 1024^4 = 2^40 = 1,099,511,627,776
peta-      1000^5 1024^5 = 2^50 = 1,125,899,906,842,624
exa-       1000^6 1024^6 = 2^60 = 1,152,921,504,606,846,976
zetta-     1000^7 1024^7 = 2^70 = 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424
yotta-     1000^8 1024^8 = 2^80 = 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176

Object Linking and Embedding (OLE)If the object is embedded, then the illustration remains under control of the original application.
If the object is linked, changes you make through your application are made directly to the source file.

Peripherals are attach to your PC via ports:

Serial Port  - 115 Kbps

USB - 12 Mbps = 12 million bits per second

FireWire - IEEE 1394 - 400 Mbps

USB 2.0- 480 Mbps

Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)
(PCI) A standard for connecting peripherals to a personal computer, designed by Intel and released around Autumn 1993. PCI is supported by most major manufacturers including Apple Computer. It is technically far superior to VESA's local bus. It runs at 20 - 33 MHz and carries 32 bits at a time over a 124-pin connector or 64 bits over a 188-pin connector. An address is sent in one cycle followed by one word of data (or several in burst mode).

Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP)

A bus specification by Intel which gives low-cost 3D graphics cards faster access to main memory on personal computers than the usual PCI bus.

AGP dynamically allocates the PC's normal RAM to store the screen image and to support texture mapping, z-buffering and alpha blending.

Intel has built AGP into a chipset for its Pentium II microprocessor AGP cards are slightly longer than a PCI card.

AGP operates at 66 MHz, doubled to 133 MHz, compared with PCI's 33 Mhz. AGP allows for efficient use of frame buffer memory, thereby helping 2D graphics performance as well.

AGP provides a coherent memory management design which allows scattered data in system memory to be read in rapid bursts.