HP 733/800/866MHz 1GHz, Administrator'S Manual

Page: 108 / 118

Glossary
English 108
character set based on ASCII.
Extended ASCII (used in DOS), ANSI
(used in Windows), and Unicode
(used in Windows NT) all include
ASCII as a subset.
AUI Attachment Unit Interface. An
IEEE specification for a node or
connection interface to an external
medium attachment unit (MAU).
AUI Cable A cable used to connect
an external transceiver to a
computing device. The AUI cable is
also sometimes known as the
transceiver cable.
backbone Generally, a coax or fiber
optic cable used as the main
transmission medium for connecting
network areas called workgroups.
base address The first address in a
series of addresses in memory: that is,
the beginning location of a section of
code or data. It is often used to
describe the start of a network
interface card's (NIC) I/O: that is, the
I/O base address.
baseband A network that transmits
signals as a pulse rather than as
variations in a carrier wave (signal).
BIOS Basic Input Output System.
BIOS is built-in software typically
contained in a ROM (Read Only
Memory) chip that determines what a
computer can do without accessing
programs from disk. On IBM PCs,
BIOS contains code required to
control the keyboard, display screen,
disk drives, serial communications,
etc. A Plug and Play BIOS
supplements the BIOS functions with
routines that support Plug and Play
operations.
bit Binary digit. A bit is the smallest
unit of information represented on a
computer. A bit can contain either a
zero (0) or a one (1).
boot image A boot image is a file on
a server that appears to a client PC as
a bootable disk.
Boot PROM or Boot ROM Boot
Programmable Read Only Memory. A
memory chip that allows the network
workstation to communicate with the
network file server and to read a DOS
boot program from the server. These
diskless workstations are then
capable of operating on the network
without having a disk drive.
bootable disk A disk from which an
operating system can be launched
automatically by the computer when
the computer is switched on. The disk
contains the operating system and
other related files.
BOOTP Bootstrap Protocol. A
TCP/IP network protocol, defined by
RFC 951 and RFC 1542, used to
configure systems. DHCP is an
extension of BOOTP. See DHCP
below.