Glossary
Glossary - 6
full-height device
Standard form factor for 5 1/4-inch storage devices.
half-height device
Standard form factor for storage devices that are not the height of full-height devices.
halt
The action of transferring control of the computer system to the console program.
hot swap
The process of removing a device from the system without shutting down the operating
system or powering down the hardware.
initialization
The sequence of steps that prepare the computer system to start. Occurs after a system has
been powered up.
Interrupt request lines (IRQs)
Bus signals that connect an EISA or ISA module (for example, a disk controller) to the
system so that the module can get the system's attention via an interrupt.
ISA
Industry Standard Architecture. An 8-bit or 16-bit industry-standard I/O bus, widely used
in personal computer products. The EISA bus is a superset of the ISA bus.
LAN
Local area network. A high-speed network that supports computers that are connected
over limited distances.
loopback test
Internal and external tests that are used to isolate a failure by testing segments of a
particular control or data path. A subset of ROM-based diagnostics.
machine check/interrupts
An operating system action triggered by certain system hardware-detected errors that can
be fatal to system operation. Once triggered, machine check handler software analyzes the
error.
