INTERRUPT REQUEST (IRQ)
Hardware interrupt on a PC. Eight lines (0-7 on 8086/88s) and 16 lines (0-15 on
286 and up) accept interruption from input devices, such as a scanner or network
adapter.
INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS ORGANIZATION (ISO)
Organization that sets international standards; founded in 1946 and headquartered
in Geneva.
ISA
Industry Standard Architecture. An older bus architecture on the motherboard of
MS-DOS computers. The ISA bus was originally pioneered by IBM on its PC, then
its XT and AT. ISA is also called classic bus. It comes in an 8-bit and 16-bit
version.
Most references to ISA mean the 16-bit version. Many machines claiming ISA
compatibility actually have both 8 and 16-bit connectors on the motherboard.
MICROPROCESSOR
CPU on a single chip. In order to function as a computer, it requires a power
supply, clock, and memory.
MULTICAST SWITCHING
A process whereby the switch decides to filter incoming multicast frames, or
forward them to all ports contained within the designated multicast VLAN group.
