MPE/iX Glossary of Terms and Acronyms (32650-90887)

24 Chapter1
Glossary of Terms
peripheral device. It is the same as an I/O interface card or a printed
circuit assembly.
device address See bus address.
device class A collection of devices. The MPE/iX file system supports a means of
maintaining collections of devices.
device configuration See system configuration.
device file A physical device that the system treats as a file by writing to it or reading
from it. Examples of device files are $STDIN and $STDLIST, the default
input and output device files for the keyboard and terminal screen,
respectively.
device independence A characteristic of the operating system that allows users to
selectively redirect input/output from a program, session, or job with the
FILE command without regard to the nature of the device. File equations
created with the FILE command are in effect only for the duration of the
job or session in which they are defined.
device reference table (DRT) A table containing the logical address of disks, tape
drives, and other peripheral devices.
device subtype A number ranging from 0 to 15, defining a specific device and its
associated software driver. There can be several device subtypes within
one basic type. For example, a graphics terminal and one without graphics
capabilities can share the same device type, but they are assigned
different subtype numbers.
device type Device types are defined by a number. For example, 0 represents a
moving-head disk and 16 is the class type number assigned to line
printers.
diagnostician capability (DI capability) A capability usually assigned only to the
Hewlett-Packard customer engineer (CE). It allows the CE to conduct
certain CPU and diagnostic tests.
Diagnostic Support Monitor (DSM) The online diagnostic package for the Intelligent
Network Processor (INP).
diagnostic user interface (DUI) A means by which a user can communicate with the
diagnostic system.
diagnostic utility system (DUS) A set of utilities used to diagnose a system failure.
The DUS is loaded from standalone serial storage media into the main
memory of the shutdown system.
diagnostics A set of programs that test for hardware faults.
dibit A two-bit signal unit.
digital A method of representing all information stored, processed, or transferred
in discrete values or symbols. For example, the set of integers constitute a
set of digital values. The opposite of analog.
digital multiplexed interface (DMI) A specification for interfacing a host computer to
a private branch exchange (PBX).