Appendix D Terminology
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connect LCD displays to a computer.
POST
The Power-on Self Test (POST) is the pre-boot actions the
system performs when the system is turned-on.
RAM
Random Access Memory (RAM) is volatile memory that loses
data when power is lost. RAM has very fast data transfer rates
compared to other storage like hard drives.
SATA
Serial ATA (SATA) is a serial communications bus designed for
data transfers between storage devices and the computer
chipsets. The SATA bus has transfer speeds up to 1.5 Gbps
and the SATA II bus has data transfer speeds of up to 3.0 Gbps.
S.M.A.R.T
Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T)
refers to automatic status checking technology implemented on
hard disk drives.
UART
Universal Asynchronous Receiver-transmitter (UART) is
responsible for asynchronous communications on the system
and manages the system’s serial communication (COM) ports.
UHCI
The Universal Host Controller Interface (UHCI) specification is a
register-level interface description for USB 1.1 Host Controllers.
USB
The Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an external bus standard for
interfacing devices. USB 1.1 supports 12Mbps data transfer
rates and USB 2.0 supports 480Mbps data transfer rates.
VGA
The Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a graphics display system
developed by IBM.
