Glossary
page 42
LaCie Ethernet Disk mini
User’s Manual
LAN (Local Area Network)
– A group of computers and associated devices that share a common communication line and
typically share the resources of a single processor or server within a small geographic area.
Mb (Megabit)
– Equivalent to 1,000,000 bits.
Mb/s
– Megabits per second. A means of measuring throughput. 480Mb/s is equal to 60MB/s.
MB (Megabyte)
– Basically means one million bytes, but is actually 1,024 Kilobytes or 1,024 x 1,024 bytes, which equals
1,048,576 bytes.
MB/s
– Megabytes per second. A means of measuring throughput.
Media
– The material or device used to store information in a storage subsystem, such as a tape cartridge, CD, DVD or disk
drive.
Network
– A series of points or nodes interconnected by communication paths. Networks can interconnect with other
networks and contain subnetworks.
Operating System (OS)
– Software that controls the assignment and use of hardware resources such as memory, processor
time, disk space and peripherals. An operating system is the basis on which software (applications) run. Windows, Mac OS
and UNIX are among the most common.
Overwrite
– To write data on top of existing data thus erasing the original data.
Partition, -ing
– After formatting, the hard drive is not yet ready to store files. It must be divided into sections that will contain
special information required for a Mac or PC to operate and other sections that will contain the files. This process of dividing
up the hard drive is called partitioning. A partition is just one section of the hard drive that will contain either special data put
there by Silverlining or other files and data.
Peripheral
– A generic term applied to printers, scanners, mice, keyboards, serial ports, graphics cords, disk drives and other
computer subsystems. This type of peripheral often relies on its own control software, known as a peripheral driver.
Port, hardware
– A connection component (SCSI port, for example) that enables a microprocessor to communicate with a
compatible peripheral.
Port, number
– Used to identify a specific process to which an Internet or other network message is to be forwarded when it
arrives at a server.
