Glossary
203
Glossary
Terms in this Glossary are provided for informational purposes only and may
or may not describe features included with your particular computer.
A
AC
—
alternating current — The form of electricity that powers your computer when
you plug the AC adapter power cable in to an electrical outlet.
ACPI
— advanced configuration and power interface — A power management
specification that enables Microsoft
®
Windows
®
operating systems to put a computer
in standby or hibernate mode to conserve the amount of electrical power allocated to
each device attached to the computer.
AGP
— accelerated graphics port — A dedicated graphics port that allows system
memory to be used for video-related tasks. AGP delivers a smooth, true-color video
image because of the faster interface between the video circuitry and the computer
memory.
AHCI
— Advanced Host Controller Interface — An interface for a SATA hard drive
Host Controller which allows the storage driver to enable technologies such as Native
Command Queuing (NCQ) and hot plug.
ALS
— ambient light sensor — A feature that helps to control display brightness.
antivirus software
— A program designed to identify, quarantine, and/or delete viruses
from your computer.
ASF
— alert standards format — A standard to define a mechanism for reporting
hardware and software alerts to a management console. ASF is designed to be
platform- and operating system-independent.
B
battery life span
— The length of time (years) during which a portable computer
battery is able to be depleted and recharged.
battery operating time
— The length of time (minutes or hours) that a portable
computer battery powers the computer.
book.book Page 203 Monday, October 6, 2008 11:28 AM