Glossary-141
Gl
ossary
kilobyte
A measure of computer memory or storage. One KB equals approximately one thousand bytes.
light-emitting
diode (LED)
A device that emits visible light when an electric current passes through it.
Local Area
Network (LAN)
LANs are data communications networks which are geographically limited, allowing easy interconnection of
terminals, microprocessors and computers within adjacent buildings.
Logical Block
Addressing
(LBA)
A hard disk drive addressing scheme that enables the use of drives larger than 512 MB.
megabits per
second (Mbps)
A unit of measurement used to describe the rate of data transfer.
megabyte
A unit of measurement used to describe the rate of data transfer. One MB is equal to approximately one million
bytes.
megahertz
(MHz)
A unit of measurement used to describe microprocessor speed. One MHz is equal to one million cycles per
second.
memory
Memory is the electronic holding place for instructions and data that your computer's microprocessor can
reach quickly. See also random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), hard disk, floppy disk, and
removable storage.
microprocessor
An integrated circuit that contains circuits the computer needs to calculate and to communicate with the other
parts of the system. Also see CPU.
motherboard
See system board.
mouse
A mouse is a small device that a computer user pushes across a desk surface in order to point to a place on a
display screen and make selections by clicking the buttons.
multimedia
Multimedia is more than one concurrent presentation medium (for example, on CD-ROM or a Web site).
Although still images are a different medium than text, multimedia is typically used to refer to the combination
of text, sound, and/or motion video.