Compatibility Guide

156 Glossary
expanded memory
A technique for accessing RAM above 1 MB. To enable expanded memory on
your system, you must use an EMM. You should configure your system to support
expanded memory only if you run application programs that can use (or require)
expanded memory.
expansion bus
Your system contains an expansion bus that allows the microprocessor to
communicate with controllers for peripheral devices, such as a network card or
an internal modem.
expansion-card connector
A connector on the system's system board or riser board for plugging in an
expansion card.
extended memory
RAM above 1 MB. Most software that can use it, such as the Windows operating
system, requires that extended memory be under the control of an XMM.
external cache memory
A RAM cache using SRAM chips. Because SRAM chips operate at several times
the speed of DRAM chips, the microprocessor can retrieve data and instructions
faster from external cache memory than from RAM.
F
Abbreviation for Fahrenheit.
FAT
Acronym for file allocation table. FAT and FAT32 are file systems that are defined
as follows:
• FAT — A file system used by MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 95, and Windows
98. Windows NT
®
and Windows 2000 also can use the FAT file system. The
operating system maintains a table to keep track of the status of various
segments of disk space used for file storage.
• FAT32 — A derivative of the FAT file system. FAT32 supports smaller cluster sizes
than FAT, thus providing more efficient space allocation on FAT32 drives.
FCC
Abbreviation for Federal Communications Commission.