Glossary-2
board
Printed circuit board. Board onto which computer
components are soldered and thin wires are printed to
connect the components.
boot
To start up a computer. See cold boot and warm boot.
bus
An electronic circuit within a computer used for transmit-
ting data or electrical power from one device to another.
busy lamp
Indicator on the front of the diskette drive that lights when
the drive is writing to or reading from a diskette.
byte
Group of eight contiguous bits.
C
chip
A small piece of semiconductor material, usually silicon,
that contains miniaturized electronic circuits.
CD
Compact Disc. A non-erasable storage disc that is read op-
tically by means of a laser. Holds more than 500 megabytes
of data.
CD-ROM reader
Compact Disc, Read-Only Memory. A device that uses
laser technology to read data or play audio stored on a CD.
clock
Electronic timer used to synchronize computer operations.
