Glossary-4
hardware
The electrical and mechanical parts from which a computer is made.
hertz
(Hz) A unit of frequency equal to one cycle per second.
input
/
output
(I/O) The process of transferring data between the computer and external devices.
IDE
Intelligent Drive Electronics. A hard disk drive type that has controller electronics built into
the drive and delivers high throughput.
interface
A connection that enables two devices to communicate.
interrupt
A special control signal from an I/O device that diverts the attention of the microprocessor
from the program to a special address.
kilobyte
(KB) 1024 bytes.
load
The process of copying a program into the computer's memory from a storage device.
megabyte
(MB) 1,048,576 bytes.
memory
Electronic storage area in a computer that retains information and programs. A computer
has two types of memory - read-only memory (ROM) and random access memory (RAM).
menu
A video display of programs or options.
