Users Guide

Glossary 133
your system's BIOS may cache ROM code in faster
RAM. Or, a disk-cache utility may reserve RAM in
which to store frequently accessed information from
your system's disk drives; when a program makes a
request to a disk drive for data that is in the cache, the
disk-cache utility can retrieve the data from RAM faster
than from the disk drive.
capability
Refers to the actions that an object can perform, or
actions that can be taken on a managed object. For
example, if a card is hot-pluggable, it is capable of being
replaced while the system power is on.
CDRAM
Abbreviation for cached DRAM, which is a high-speed
DRAM memory chip developed by Mitsubishi that
includes a small SRAM cache.
CD-ROM
Abbreviation for compact disc read-only memory. CD
drives use optical technology to read data from CDs.
CDs are read-only storage devices; you cannot write
new data to a CD with standard CD drives.
CHAP
Acronym for Challenge-Handshake Authentication
Protocol, an authentication scheme used by PPP
servers to validate the identity of the originator of the
connection upon connection or any time later.
chip
A set of microminiaturized, electronic circuits that are
designed for use as processors and memory in systems.
Small chips can hold from a handful to tens of
thousands of transistors. They look like tiny chips of
aluminum, no more than 1/16 inch square by 1/30 inch
thick, which is where the term "chip" came from. Large
chips, which can be more than a half inch square, hold
millions of transistors. It is actually only the top one
thousandth of an inch of a chip's surface that holds the
circuits. The rest of it is just a base.
CIM
Acronym for Common Information Model, which is a
model for describing management information from
the DMTF. CIM is implementation independent,
allowing different management applications to collect
the required data from a variety of sources. CIM
includes schemas for systems, networks, applications
and devices, and new schemas will be added. It provides
mapping techniques for interchange of CIM data with
MIB data from SNMP agents.
CIMOM
Acronym for common information model
object manager.
CI/O
Abbreviation for comprehensive input/output.
CLI
Abbreviation for command line interface.
cm
Abbreviation for centimeter(s).
CMOS
Acronym for complementary metal-oxide
semiconductor. In systems, CMOS memory chips are
often used for NVRAM storage.
COMn
The device names for the first through fourth serial
ports on your system are COM1, COM2, COM3, and
COM4. The default interrupt for COM1 and COM3
is IRQ4, and the default interrupt for COM2 and
COM4 is IRQ3. Therefore, you must be careful when
configuring software that runs a serial device so that
you don't create an interrupt conflict.
config.sys file
The config.sys file is executed when you boot your
system (before running any commands in the
autoexec.bat file). This start-up file contains
commands that specify which devices to install and
which drivers to use. This file also contains commands