Laptop User Manual

196 Glossary

BIOS — basic input/output system — A program (or utility) that serves as an

interface between the computer hardware and the operating system. Unless you

understand what effect these settings have on the computer, do not change them. Also

referred to as system setup.

bit — The smallest unit of data interpreted by your computer.

Bluetooth

wireless technology — A wireless technology standard for short-range

(9 m [29 feet]) networking devices that allows for enabled devices to automatically

recognize each other.

Blu-ray Disc — Blu-ray Disc (BD) is an optical disc format jointly developed by the

Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA). A BD records and plays high-definition video (HD),

and stores large amounts of data: five times the storage capacity of a DVD and can

hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc.

BD-R — Blu-ray Disc recordable refers to two optical disc formats that can be

recorded with an optical disc recorder. BD-R discs can be written to once.

BD-RE — Blu-ray Disc RE can be erased and re-recorded multiple times.

boot sequence — Specifies the order of the devices from which the computer

attempts to boot.

bootable CD — A CD that you can use to start your computer. In case your hard drive

is damaged or your computer has a virus, ensure that you always have a bootable CD

or floppy disk available. Your Drivers and Utilities media is a bootable CD.

bootable disk — A disk that you can use to start your computer. In case your hard

drive is damaged or your computer has a virus, ensure that you always have a bootable

CD or floppy disk available.

bps — bits per second — The standard unit for measuring data transmission speed.

BTU — British thermal unit — A measurement of heat output.

bus — A communication pathway between the components in your computer.

bus speed — The speed, given in MHz, that indicates how fast a bus can transfer

information.

byte — The basic data unit used by your computer. A byte is usually equal to 8 bits.

C — Celsius — A temperature measurement scale where 0° is the freezing point and

100° is the boiling point of water.

cache — A special high-speed storage mechanism which can be either a reserved

section of main memory or an independent high-speed storage device. The cache

enhances the efficiency of many processor operations.