Manual

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partition
A feature of the operating system that allows you to divide a hard drive into multiple physical sections called partitions. Each partition can contain multiple
logical drives.
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PCI
Abbreviation for Peripheral Component Interconnect. A standard for local-bus implementation.
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peripheral device
An internal or external device—such as a printer, a disk drive, or a keyboard—connected to a system.
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PGA
Abbreviation for pin grid array, a type of microprocessor socket that allows you to remove the microprocessor chip.
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pixel
A single point on a video display. Pixels are arranged in rows and columns to create an image. A video resolution, such as 640 x 480, is expressed as the
number of pixels across by the number of pixels up and down.
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Plug and Play
An industry-standard specification that makes it easier to add hardware devices to personal systems. Plug and Play provides automatic installation and
configuration, compatibility with existing hardware, and dynamic support of mobile computing environments.
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POST
Acronym for power-on self-test. Before the operating system loads when you turn on your system, the POST tests various system components such as RAM,
the disk drives, and the keyboard.
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ppm
Abbreviation for pages per minute.
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protected mode
An operating mode supported by 80286 or higher microprocessors, protected mode allows operating systems to implement:
l Amemoryaddressspaceof16MB(80286microprocessor)to4GB(Intel386™orhighermicroprocessor)
l Multitasking
l Virtual memory, a method for increasing addressable memory by using the hard drive
Many 32-bit operating systems run in protected mode. MS-DOS cannot run in protected mode; however, some programs that you can start from MS-DOS, such
as the Windows operating system, are able to put the system into protected mode.
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PS/2
Abbreviation for Personal System/2.
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PXE
Acronym for preboot execution environment.
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RAID