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Comptia A+ Cert > Comptia A+ Terms > Flashcards

Comptia A+ Terms Flashcards

1
Q

RAM

A

random access memory

stores programs and data currently being used by the CPU

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2
Q

CPU

A

central processing unit,

also microprocessor

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3
Q

BIOS

A

basic input-output system

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4
Q

ROM

A

read-only memory

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5
Q

OS

A

operating system

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6
Q

GPU

A

graphics processing unit

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7
Q

DC

A

direct current

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8
Q

AC

A

alternating current

Electricity comes in two flavors: direct current (DC), in which the electrons flow in one direction around a continuous circuit, and alternating current (AC), in which the flow of electrons alternates direction back and forth in a circuit.

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9
Q

NIC

A

network interface card

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10
Q

FRU

A

field replaceable unit

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11
Q

plug

A

A plug is a part with some type of projection that goes into a port.

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12
Q

port

A

A port is a part that has some type of matching hole or slot that accepts the plug.

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13
Q

jack

A

The term jack is used as an alternative to port, so you may also put a plug into a jack.

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14
Q

connector

A

The term connector describes either a port (jack) or a plug.

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15
Q

DIN

A

Deutsche Industrie Norm

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16
Q

PS/2

A

Personal System 2

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17
Q

USB

A

Universal Serial Bus

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18
Q

FireWire

A

also known as IEEE 1394

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19
Q

DB connectors

A

Technically, they’re known as D-sub or D-subminiature connectors, but most techs call them DBs. CompTIA calls them D-shell connectors, so don’t be surprised by that term either.

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20
Q

D-shell

A

DB Connectors. Technically, they’re known as D-sub or D-subminiature connectors, but most techs call them DBs. CompTIA calls them D-shell connectors, so don’t be surprised by that term either.

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21
Q

RJ connector

A

the RJ-11 and the RJ-45. The phone jack is an RJ-11. It is used almost exclusively for modems. The slightly wider RJ-45 jack is used for your network connection.

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22
Q

RJ-11

A

The phone jack is an RJ-11. It is used almost exclusively for modems.

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23
Q

RJ-45

A

RJ-45 jack is used for your network connection.

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24
Q

1/8-inch connector

A

mini-audio connector

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25
Q

S/PDIF

A

Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format (S/PDIF) connection. S/PDIF comes in coaxial and optical versions.

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26
Q

mini-DIN

A

Most keyboard plugs and mini-DIN keyboard ports are colored purple.

A mouse uses either a USB port or a dedicated, light-green mini-DIN connector.

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27
Q

VGA

A

Video Graphics Array

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28
Q

DVI

A

digital visual interface

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29
Q

DVI-D

A

The DVI connector comes in three flavors: DVI-D (all digital), DVI-A (analog), and DVI-I (both digital and analog).

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30
Q

DVI-A

A

The DVI connector comes in three flavors: DVI-D (all digital), DVI-A (analog), and DVI-I (both digital and analog).

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31
Q

DVI-I

A

The DVI connector comes in three flavors: DVI-D (all digital), DVI-A (analog), and DVI-I (both digital and analog).

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32
Q

HDMI

A

High-Definition Multimedia Interface

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33
Q

VESA

A

Video Electronic Standards Association

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34
Q

mDP

A

DisplayPort has both a full-sized connector and a smaller one, called Mini DisplayPort (mDP).

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35
Q

modem

A

modulate - demodulate

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36
Q

DVD

A

digital versatile disc

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37
Q

I/O

A

input/output

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38
Q

ESD

A

electrostatic discharge

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39
Q

DIMM

A

dual inline memory module

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40
Q

TB

A

terabyte

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41
Q

CD-ROM

A

compact disk - read only memory

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42
Q

CR-R

A

CD-R (recordable: you can change the data once)

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43
Q

CD-RW

A

CD-RW (rewritable: you can change the data on them over and over).

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44
Q

MB

A

megabytes

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45
Q

GB

A

gigabytes

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46
Q

LCD

A

liquid crystal display (or is it liquid crystal diode)

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47
Q

CRT

A

cathode ray tube

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48
Q

MSDS

A

Material Safety Data Sheet

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49
Q

AMD

A

Advanced Micro Devices

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50
Q

ALU

A

arithmetic logic unit

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51
Q

Registers

A

memory circuits located inside the CPU that hold data before and after processing.

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52
Q

FPU

A

floating-point unit

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53
Q

SRAM

A

static RAM

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54
Q

cache

A

Modern CPUs have two sets of ultra-fast static RAM (SRAM) memory built in, called cache.

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55
Q

L1

A

The Level 1 (L1) cache memory is the first and fastest and is built into the processor.

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56
Q

L2

A

Level 2 (L2) cache memory is the second cache.

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57
Q

package

A

The ceramic casing that holds the CPU is called the package.

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58
Q

die

A

The ceramic casing that holds the CPU is called the package. The silicon wafer that has all the transistors is called the die.

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59
Q

on-die

A

The ceramic casing that holds the CPU is called the package. The silicon wafer that has all the transistors is called the die. Components that are incorporated into the silicon, such as L2 cache memory, are referred to as being on-die.

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60
Q

address space

A

The number of wires on the address bus defines the maximum amount of RAM a CPU can theoretically address. This is called the address space.

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61
Q

pipeline

A

The term pipeline refers to the discrete series of steps that the CPU follows to process commands.

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62
Q

clock speed

A

The CPU clock speed, or frequency, tells you how many calculation cycles a CPU can (in theory) execute per second.

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63
Q

Hz

A

One CPU calculation cycle per second is equal to 1 hertz (Hz).

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64
Q

MHz

A

millions of calculation cycles per second, or megahertz (MHz).

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65
Q

GHz

A

CPU clock speed measured in billions of cycles per second, or gigahertz (GHz).

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66
Q

system crystal

A

The system crystal—a quartz crystal circuit that oscillates at a fixed frequency when fed current—sets the motherboard’s clock speed.

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67
Q

CPUID

A

Today’s CPUs actually report to the motherboard through a function called CPUID (CPU identifier), and the system bus speed and multiplier are often set automatically.

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68
Q

PGA

A

All current CPUs come in a square package called a pin grid array (PGA),

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69
Q

BGA

A

All current CPUs come in a square package called a pin grid array (PGA), but variations exist within and among manufacturers. Collectively, Intel and AMD have used close to 100 variations of the PGA package over the years for hundreds of different CPU models. They’ve used names such as staggered-PGA, micro-PGA, ball grid array, or BGA (which uses tiny balls instead of pins), and land grid array, or LGA (which uses flat pads instead of pins).

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70
Q

LGA

A

All current CPUs come in a square package called a pin grid array (PGA), but variations exist within and among manufacturers. Collectively, Intel and AMD have used close to 100 variations of the PGA package over the years for hundreds of different CPU models. They’ve used names such as staggered-PGA, micro-PGA, ball grid array, or BGA (which uses tiny balls instead of pins), and land grid array, or LGA (which uses flat pads instead of pins).

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71
Q

ZIF

A

To make CPU insertion and removal easier, these sockets—officially called zero insertion force (ZIF) sockets—use a small arm on the side of the socket or a cage that fits over the socket to hold the CPU in place. ZIF sockets are easily identified by their squarish shape.

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72
Q

SEC

A

Exam Tip: For a short time, Intel and AMD produced large, rectangular-shaped CPU packages called single edge cartridges (SECs) that fit into a slot, kind of like an expansion card. The first was the Intel Pentium II. The SEC is long dead, but it might show up as an incorrect answer on the 801 exam.

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73
Q

MMX

A

Starting with later versions of the Intel Pentium, manufacturers have improved some of the registers inside the CPU, adding specific-use and general-use registers along with special CPU instructions to use them. The first, developed by Intel, were called multimedia extensions (MMX); they were 64-bit and borrowed the FPU’s registers while in use.

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74
Q

Hyper-Threading Technology

A

Intel introduced Hyper-Threading Technology with the Pentium 4 processor. Hyper-Threading is Intel’s brand name for its implementation of simultaneous multithreading, which is a way of executing multiple threads simultaneously on a single processor core. For instance, a single-core Intel Pentium 4 with Hyper-Threading looks like two CPUs to the OS.

Exam Tip: Know that Hyper-Threading is a form of simultaneous multithreading used in Intel chips to increase performance on a single processor core.

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75
Q

x86

A

Exam Tip: Processors come in both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) varieties. 64-bit processors can access more memory (RAM) than 32-bit processors. When used in conjunction with 64-bit software, they can improve performance.

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76
Q

x64

A

Exam Tip: Processors come in both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) varieties. 64-bit processors can access more memory (RAM) than 32-bit processors. When used in conjunction with 64-bit software, they can improve performance.

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77
Q

throttling

A

Modern CPUs can reduce their processing cycles and lower their clock speeds when they reach a certain temperature, a feature called throttling.

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78
Q

virtualization

A

Intel and AMD have built-in support for running more than one operating system (or virtual machine) at a time, a process called virtualization. The key issue from a CPU standpoint is that virtualization used to work entirely through software. Programmers had to write a ton of code to enable a CPU that was designed to run one OS at a time to run more than one OS at the same time.

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79
Q

IMC

A

Almost all current microprocessors have an integrated memory controller (IMC), moved from the motherboard chip into the CPU to optimize the flow of information into and out from the CPU.

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80
Q

heat sink

A

A heat sink is a set of metal tines designed to wick heat away from the CPU.

81
Q

CMOS clear

A

Most motherboards have a jumper setting called CMOS clear that makes the CMOS go back to default settings.

82
Q

SIMM

A

Single inline memory modules (SIMMs) used to be the most common form of memory, but you won’t see them on any PCs manufactured in the last decade.

83
Q

DIMM

A

Dual inline memory modules (DIMMs) are the sticks you’re most likely to run into these days, including two popular variants used in laptops, MicroDIMMs and small outline DIMMs (SO-DIMMs).

84
Q

SO-DIMM

A

small outline DIMMs

85
Q

RIMM

A

Technically, the term RIMM doesn’t stand for anything, but most techs use it as an acronym for Rambus inline memory module.

86
Q

SME

A

Exam Tip: I know that many techs will shake their heads about this and say they’ve been mixing RAM packages for years and never had any problems. CompTIA’s subject matter experts (SMEs) think it’s a problem to mix RAM packages, however, so look for a question on the topic, and get it right.

87
Q

SRAM

A

RAM comes in two forms: static RAM (SRAM) and dynamic RAM (DRAM). SRAM is faster than DRAM because it never needs to be refreshed; however, it is also much more expensive. SRAM is, therefore, reserved for special purposes, such as L1, L2, and L3 system cache memory. (These concepts are different from the ‘form factor names like SIMM and DIMM. A DIMM can be either SRAM or DRAM.)

88
Q

DRAM

A

RAM comes in two forms: static RAM (SRAM) and dynamic RAM (DRAM). SRAM is faster than DRAM because it never needs to be refreshed; however, it is also much more expensive. SRAM is, therefore, reserved for special purposes, such as L1, L2, and L3 system cache memory. (These concepts are different from the ‘form factor names like SIMM and DIMM. A DIMM can be either SRAM or DRAM.)

DRAM is used for system memory and needs to be refreshed every few nanoseconds (ns).

89
Q

wait state

A

DRAM is used for system memory and needs to be refreshed every few nanoseconds (ns). During this time, it is inaccessible to the CPU. This interval is called a wait state. Faster RAM has a shorter wait state.

90
Q

FPM and EDO

A

Very old computers used asynchronous RAM, memory types that ran at a speed independent of the system clock speed. Two types saw extensive use: fast page mode (FPM) and extended data out (EDO). You could find both types on 72-pin SIMMs, and you could find (rarely) EDO on 168-pin DIMMs.

Exam Tip: You might see FPM or EDO RAM as incorrect answers on the CompTIA A+ exams.

91
Q

SDRAM

A

Synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM) delivers data in high-speed bursts. SDRAM runs at the speed of the system bus (thus, synchronously) and is rated according to the highest speed data bus it runs on, such as 66, 100, or 133 MHz.

This type of memory comes in the DIMM, SO-DIMM, and MicroDIMM form factors.

92
Q

(SPD) chip

A

SDRAM (and more advanced) DIMMs have a serial presence detect (SPD) chip that identifies a DIMM’s capacity, speed, and latency—the latter being a measurement of how long the RAM takes to respond to the memory controller.

93
Q

latency

A

SDRAM (and more advanced) DIMMs have a serial presence detect (SPD) chip that identifies a DIMM’s capacity, speed, and latency—the latter being a measurement of how long the RAM takes to respond to the memory controller.

94
Q

RDRAM

A

Intel announced plans to replace SDRAM with a faster, new type of RAM developed by Rambus, Inc., called Rambus DRAM, or simply RDRAM.

Exam Tip: The CompTIA A+ exams refer to RDRAM and RIMMs by the manufacturer’s name: RAMBUS memory. Don’t be thrown off by this mislabeling.

95
Q

CRIMM

A

Even quirkier, RDRAM motherboards required that all RIMM slots be populated. Unused slots needed a passive device called a continuity RIMM (CRIMM) installed in each slot to enable the RDRAM system to terminate properly.

RDRAM offered dramatic possibilities for high-speed PCs, but it is effectively dead in today’s market. You’ll see it still on some game consoles.

96
Q

DDR

A

Many motherboards support double data rate (DDR) SDRAM, usually referred to as simply DDR.

97
Q

DDR2

A

“double data rate - 2”

DDR2 succeeded the DDR SDRAM standard. Improvements in DDR2’s electrical characteristics enable it to run even faster than DDR while using less power.

DDR2 uses a 240-pin DIMM form factor as well as a 200-pin SO-DIMM or 214-pin MicroDIMM for portable systems.

98
Q

DDR3

A

“double data rate - 3”

DDR2 was the standard for several years, but DDR3 boasts higher speeds, more efficient architecture, and around 30% lower power consumption than DDR2 RAM.

Exam Tip: You should be familiar with the various RAM speeds. (Lesson 5 Chapter 3)

99
Q

ECC

A

High-end, mission-critical systems often use special parity or error-correcting code (ECC) RAM. These types of RAM use special circuitry to detect and, in some cases, correct errors in data.

100
Q

CMOS

A

complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) memory chip and setup utility

101
Q

POST

A

power-on self test

During POST, the system BIOS communicates with all essential hardware and, in essence, tells them all to identify themselves.

102
Q

power good wire

A

You start the process by powering the system on, sending current to the motherboard and drives. Assuming your power supply is in good working order, a special wire on the central processing unit (CPU) called the power good wire is charged, telling it to wake up.

103
Q

beep codes

A

The way that the PC communicates POST errors is through special sound codes called beep codes and through text or numeric messages displayed on your monitor.

104
Q

EEPROM

A

Current motherboards use writable ROM chips such as flash ROM, or, more technically, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM).

105
Q

ROM BIOS

A

Exam Tip: Many techs refer to the system BIOS as the ROM BIOS, and the CompTIA A+ certification exams may use either term.

106
Q

volatile memory

A

There’s a big difference between system ROM chips and RAM that you need to appreciate. RAM is called volatile memory because RAM stores data only while the PC is powered on. System ROM memory, on the other hand, is non-volatile memory and retains data even when the system is powered off.

107
Q

non-volatile memory

A

There’s a big difference between system ROM chips and RAM that you need to appreciate. RAM is called volatile memory because RAM stores data only while the PC is powered on. System ROM memory, on the other hand, is non-volatile memory and retains data even when the system is powered off.

108
Q

flashing the BIOS

A

Techs refer to updating system BIOS as flashing the BIOS.

Exam Tip: The CompTIA A+ 801 exam refers to flashing the BIOS as installing a firmware upgrade. Because the BIOS is stored on ROM rather than in RAM, it’s less volatile than software, hence the term firmware.

109
Q

UEFI

A

Many current motherboards ship with an upgraded style of BIOS called Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI).

110
Q

CMOS setup utility

A

The CMOS setup utility, stored in the system ROM, (not on the CMOS chip) enables you to configure important system BIOS settings stored in the CMOS chip, which is a part of the southbridge on most PCs.

111
Q

M.I.T.

A

You can use MB Intelligent Tweaker (M.I.T.) to change the voltage and multiplier settings on the motherboard for the CPU from the defaults.

112
Q

PnP

A

Plug and Play (PnP) is how devices automatically work when you snap them into your PC.

113
Q

PCI

A

Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) is a type of slot used for cards.

114
Q

CMOS clear

A

if you need to access the CMOS and don’t have the supervisor CMOS password, you can gain access in a couple of ways. You can use the CMOS clear jumper.

115
Q

TPM

A

The Trusted Platform Module (TPM) acts as a secure cryptoprocessor, which is to say that it is a hardware platform for the acceleration of cryptographic functions and the secure storage of associated information.

116
Q

traces

A

The motherboard contains the wires—called traces—that make up the buses of the system.

117
Q

ATX

A

Exam Tip: The earliest standard motherboard form factor was called AT, for Advanced Technology. X?

118
Q

μATX

A

You’ll sometimes see microATX motherboards referred to with the Greek symbol for micro, as in μATX.

119
Q

FlexATX

A

FlexATX motherboards have maximum dimensions of just 9 by 7.5 inches, which makes them the smallest motherboards in the ATX standard.

Note: Many techs and websites use the term mini-ATX to refer to motherboards smaller than a full ATX board. This is technically incorrect. The specifications for these small boards use only the terms microATX and FlexATX.

120
Q

SFF

A

chipset maker VIA Technologies created a small form factor (SFF) motherboard, the ITX

121
Q

ITX

A

insy tinsy X ??

Around 2001, chipset maker VIA Technologies created a small form factor (SFF) motherboard, the ITX. The ITX itself wasn’t a success, but VIA created a number of even smaller form factors that today populate the SFF market: Mini-ITX, Nano-ITX, and Pico-ITX.

122
Q

Northbridge

A

The Northbridge chip on traditional Intel-based motherboards helped the CPU work with RAM. With later motherboards, the CPU took on the role of the memory controller so the Northbridge provided the communication with the video card. Northbridge chips got pretty hot, requiring their own heat-sink and fan assembly.

123
Q

Southbridge

A

The Southbridge traditionally handled some expansion devices and mass storage drives, such as hard drives. Most Southbridge chips didn’t need extra cooling, leaving the chip exposed or passively cooled with only a heat sink.

124
Q

MCH

A

Chipset makers don’t always use the terms Northbridge and Southbridge. Chipsets for AMD-based motherboards tend to use these terms, but Intel-based motherboards tend to say Memory Controller Hub (MCH) for the Northbridge and I/O Controller Hub (ICH) for the Southbridge.

125
Q

ICH

A

Chipset makers don’t always use the terms Northbridge and Southbridge. Chipsets for AMD-based motherboards tend to use these terms, but Intel-based motherboards tend to say Memory Controller Hub (MCH) for the Northbridge and I/O Controller Hub (ICH) for the Southbridge.

126
Q

SoC

A

The core processor in the iPhone and other smartphones and tablets is called generically a system-on-a-chip (SoC). An SoC performs all the functions that used to require discrete chips on a PC

127
Q

expansion slots

A

Expansion slots have been part of the PC from the very beginning. Way back then, IBM created the PC with an eye to the future; the original IBM PC had slots built into the motherboard—called expansion slots—for adding expansion cards and thus new functions to the PC.

128
Q

expansion bus

A

The slots and accompanying wires and support chips on the first PC and on the latest and greatest PC are called the expansion bus.

129
Q

AGP

A

Shortly after Intel invented PCI, they presented a specialized, video-only version of PCI called the Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP).

130
Q

PCI-X

A

PCI Extended (PCI-X) was an enhancement to PCI that was also fully backward compatible in terms of both hardware and software.

131
Q

Mini-PCI

A

PCI has even made it into laptops in the specialty Mini-PCI format. You’ll find Mini-PCI in just about every laptop these days. Mini-PCI is designed to use low power and to lie flat—both good features for a laptop expansion slot.

132
Q

hdwwiz.exe

A

Exam Tip: Don’t be surprised to see hdwwiz.exe on the CompTIA A+ exams. It’s the only way to run the Add Hardware Wizard in Windows 7.

133
Q

ASUS, BIOSTAR, DFI, GIGABYTE, Intel, MSI, and Shuttle

A

Brands of motherboards.

134
Q

PSU

A

power supply unit

135
Q

volts

amps

watts

ohms

A

Pressure = volts (V)
Volume flowing = amperes (A)
Work = watts (W)
Resistance = ohms (Ω)

136
Q

IEC-320

A

The power supply connects to the power cord (and thus to an electrical outlet) via a standard IEC-320 connector.

The IEC-320 plug has three holes, called hot, neutral, and ground.

137
Q

VOM

A

volt-ohm meter

138
Q

DMM

A

You can use a multimeter—often also referred to as a volt-ohm meter (VOM) or digital multimeter (DMM)—to measure a number of aspects of electrical current.

139
Q

VAC

A

AC voltage

140
Q

VDC

A

DC voltage

141
Q

EMI

A

electromagnetic interference

142
Q

RFI

A

radio frequency interference

143
Q

UPS

A

An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) protects your computer (and, more important, your data) in the event of a power sag or power outage.

144
Q

VA

A

All uninterruptible power supplies are measured in both watts (the true amount of power they supply in the event of a power outage) and in volt-amps (VA). Why the two measurements? Here’s the scoop.

A UPS provides perfect AC power, moving current smoothly back and forth 60 times a second. The volt-amps rating describes the amount of power the UPS could supply if the connected devices took power from the UPS perfectly.

145
Q

VDC

A

Note: You’ll sometimes see DC voltages abbreviated as VDC for volts of direct current.

146
Q

Molex connector

A

A common type of power connection for devices other than modern hard drives is the Molex connector.

147
Q

soft power

A

When plugged in, ATX systems have 5 V running to the motherboard. They’re always “on” even when powered down. The power switch you press to power up the PC isn’t a true power switch like the light switch on the wall in your bedroom. The power switch on an ATX system simply tells the computer whether it has been pressed. The BIOS or operating system takes over from there and handles the chore of turning the PC on or off. This is called soft power.

148
Q

SSI

A

ATX12V 1.3 power supplies worked fine for consumer systems but didn’t offer enough power for some server motherboards. To address server needs, an industry group called the Server System Infrastructure (SSI) developed a non-ATX standard motherboard and power supply called EPS12V.

149
Q

rail

A

A rail is a set of wires (traces) in the power supply circuit board. A traditional power supply had one rail for each voltage provided, though the only one that concerns us here is the 12-V rail. That’s the one that does most of the work on modern systems.

150
Q

OCP

A

Each rail is monitored by a circuit called an Over Current Protection (OCP). The OCP monitors the rail so it can shut the power supply down if too much current goes through the rail. The big difference between single and multiple rails is safety. The OCP in a single rail system monitors all the amperage. In a multiple rail system, the amperage is monitored in smaller chunks.

151
Q

PCIe

A

Another notable connector is the auxiliary PCI Express (PCIe) power connector. Some motherboards add a Molex socket for PCIe, and some video and sound cards come with a Molex socket as well. Higher-end cards have a dedicated 6-pin or 8-pin PCIe power connector.

PCI Express (PCIe) is the latest, fastest, and most popular expansion bus in use today. As its name implies, PCI Express is still PCI, but it uses a point-to-point serial connection instead of PCI’s shared parallel communication.

152
Q

harmonics

A

Visualize the AC current coming from the power company as water in a pipe, smoothly moving back and forth, 60 times a second. A PC’s power supply, simply due to the process of changing this AC current into DC current, is like a person sucking on a straw on the end of this pipe. It takes gulps only when the current is fully pushing or pulling at the top and bottom of each cycle and creating an electrical phenomena—sort of a back pressure—that’s called harmonics in the power industry. These harmonics create the humming sound you hear from electrical components.

153
Q

active PFC

A

Good PC power supplies come with active power factor correction (active PFC), extra circuitry that smoothes out the way the power supply takes power from the power company and eliminates harmonics. Never buy a power supply that does not have active PFC—all power supplies with active PFC will announce it on the box.

154
Q

UART

A

A traditional serial port consists of two pieces: the physical, 9-pin DB connector and a chip that actually does the conversion between the serial data and parallel data, called the universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) chip. If you want to be completely accurate, the UART is the serial port. The port on the back of a PC is nothing more than a standardized connector that enables different serial devices to use the serial port. The UART holds all of the smarts that make the true serial port.

155
Q

RS-232

A

RS-232 is a very old standard that defines everything about serial ports: how fast they communicate, the language they use, even how the connectors should look. The RS-232 standard specifies that two serial devices must talk to each other in 8-bit chunks of data, but it also allows flexibility in other areas, such as speed and error-checking.

156
Q

HID

A

Such a device—think keyboard—­is a human interface device (HID). Devices that follow the HID standard are said to be HID-compliant devices.

157
Q

mA

A

milliamps

158
Q

IEEE 1394a

IEEE 1394b

A

FireWire comes in two speeds: IEEE 1394a, which runs at 400 Mbps, and IEEE 1394b, which runs at 800 Mbps.

159
Q

GIMP

A

the popular free image-editing software, GNU Image Manipulation Program (otherwise known as GIMP)

160
Q

GIMP

A

the popular free image-editing software, GNU Image Manipulation Program (otherwise known as GIMP)

161
Q

TWAIN

A

In this case, the scanner uses the traditional TWAIN drivers. TWAIN stands for Technology Without an Interesting Name—I’m not making this up!—and has been the default driver type for scanners for a long time.

162
Q

OCR

A

many scanners offer a feature called optical character recognition (OCR), a way to scan a document and have the computer turn the picture into text that you can manipulate by using a word processing program.

163
Q

biometrics

A

“Biometric identifiers are the distinctive, measurable characteristics used to label and describe individuals.” The field of biometrics also encompasses a number of security devices, such as door locks and security cameras, that don’t really fit into the world of PCs.

Exam Tip: The CompTIA A+ exams have a pretty high opinion of biometric devices, including the ones not in much use outside of movies (like retinal scanners). Look for questions on any of the topics covered above.

164
Q

UPC

A

Bar code readers are designed to read standard Universal Product Code (UPC) bar codes.

165
Q

KVM

A

A keyboard, video, mouse (KVM) switch is a hardware device that most commonly enables multiple computers to be viewed and controlled by a single mouse, keyboard, and screen.

166
Q

SD

A

Probably the most common removable storage media used in modern digital cameras (and probably your best choice) is the Secure Digital (SD) card.

167
Q

CCD

A

ou should consider the amount of information a particular model of camera or camcorder can capture, which in the digital world is expressed as some number of megapixels. Instead of light-sensitive film, digital cameras and camcorders have one CCD (charged coupled device)

168
Q

HDD

A

Traditional hard disk drives (HDDs) store data magnetically onto spinning platters, using a fast-moving actuator arm with read-write heads.

169
Q

head actuator

A

Exam Tip: You’ll see the platter-reading component of an HDD mentioned on the exams as a head actuator.

170
Q

SSD

A

Solid-state drives (SSDs) use memory chips to store data, speeding up load times and reducing the possibility of damage.

171
Q

ATA

A

Advanced Technologies Attachment (ATA) drives populate most PCs. Two styles exist: parallel ATA (PATA) and serial ATA (SATA), with the latter replacing the former as the hard drive of choice in most systems.

172
Q

PATA

A

Advanced Technologies Attachment (ATA) drives populate most PCs. Two styles exist: parallel ATA (PATA) and serial ATA (SATA), with the latter replacing the former as the hard drive of choice in most systems.

173
Q

SATA

A

Advanced Technologies Attachment (ATA) drives populate most PCs. Two styles exist: parallel ATA (PATA) and serial ATA (SATA), with the latter replacing the former as the hard drive of choice in most systems.

174
Q

IDE

A

Techs often refer to ATA drives as integrated drive electronics (IDE) or Enhanced IDE (EIDE). CompTIA has adopted the use of the terms specifically for PATA drives.

175
Q

EIDE

A

Techs often refer to ATA drives as integrated drive electronics (IDE) or Enhanced IDE (EIDE). CompTIA has adopted the use of the terms specifically for PATA drives. Read on for more clarification.

176
Q

LBA

A

Exam Tip: You should know that the technologies that enabled steadily larger drive size are Logical Block Addressing (LBA) (up to 8 GB), interrupt 13 (INT 13) extensions (up to 137 GB), and ATA/ATAPI-7 (up to 144 PB).

177
Q

INT 13

A

Exam Tip: You should know that the technologies that enabled steadily larger drive size are Logical Block Addressing (LBA) (up to 8 GB), interrupt 13 (INT 13) extensions (up to 137 GB), and ATA/ATAPI-7 (up to 144 PB).

178
Q

eSATA

A

External SATA (eSATA) extends the SATA bus to external devices, as the name implies. The eSATA drives use similar connectors to internal SATA, but they’re keyed differently so you can’t mistake one for the other.

179
Q

SCSI

A

Many servers and workstations use the small computer system interface (SCSI) technologies for various pieces of core hardware and peripherals, from hard drives to older printers and high-end tape backup machines. SCSI (pronounced, skuzzy) differs from ATA in that SCSI devices connect together in a string of devices called a SCSI chain.

180
Q

SAS

A

Serial attached SCSI (SAS) dumps the chaining and termination issues that plagued earlier forms of SCSI. Plus it uses narrow cabling (like with SATA). No more horrible cabling issues on our servers! And did I mention that SAS is fast? The latest version (as of this writing) pumps out a cool 12 Gbps! Finally, SAS offers great support for large RAID arrays.

You’ll definitely find SAS arrays and drives in many modern servers. Sadly, you won’t find it on the CompTIA A+ exams.

181
Q

RAID

A

redundant array of independent (or inexpensive) disks

182
Q

BSoD

A

Blue Screen of Death

183
Q

MBR

A

Windows supports two different partitioning methods: the older but more universal master boot record (MBR) partitioning scheme and the newer (but proprietary to Microsoft) dynamic storage partitioning scheme. Microsoft calls a hard drive that uses the MBR partitioning scheme a basic disk and a drive using the dynamic storage partitioning scheme a dynamic disk.

184
Q

boot sector

A

Basic disk partitioning creates two very small data structures on a drive, the MBR and a partition table, and stores them on the first sector of the hard drive, called the boot sector.

185
Q

Primary partitions

A

The partition table supports two types of partitions: primary partitions and extended partitions. Primary partitions are designed to support bootable operating systems.

186
Q

Extended partitions

A

All basic disk partition tables support up to four partitions. The partition table supports two types of partitions: primary partitions and extended partitions. Primary partitions are designed to support bootable operating systems. Extended partitions are not bootable. A single basic disk may have up to three primary partitions and one extended partition. If your disk does not have an extended partition, it may have up to four primary partitions.

187
Q

FAT

A

FAT, creates a 16-bit file allocation table (FAT)—that’s the big spreadsheet.

188
Q

NTFS

A

Older versions of Windows operated well on FAT- and FAT32-formatted disks, but to get the full benefits of these as well as newer operating systems, you need New Technology File System (NTFS). Put simply, NTFS is the way to go in Windows.

189
Q

MFT

A

NTFS uses an enhanced file allocation table called the master file table (MFT) to keep track of the locations of files and folders.

190
Q

EFS

A

One of the big draws with NTFS is file encryption, the black art of making files unreadable to anybody who doesn’t have the right key. You can encrypt a single file, a folder, or a folder full of files. Microsoft calls the encryption utility in NTFS the encrypting file system (EFS), but it’s simply an aspect of NTFS, not a stand-alone file system.

191
Q

exFAT

A

The newer file system, called exFAT (sometimes referred to as FAT64), breaks the 4-GB file-size barrier. It supports files up to 16 exabytes (EB) and a theoretical partition limit of 64 zettabytes (ZB). Microsoft recommends a partition size of up to 512 TB on today’s USB flash drives, which should be enough for a while.

192
Q

chkdsk

A

Many techs run Error-checking from the command line using the chkdsk /f command. The /f tells the program to fix any problems discovered.

193
Q

defrag

A

Fragmentation of clusters can make drive-access times increase dramatically. It’s a good idea to defragment—or defrag—your drives as part of your monthly maintenance.

194
Q

CAB file

A

Pre-Vista versions of Windows store all their installation files in a compressed format called CAB (short for cabinet file). One CAB file contains many files, and most installation disks have lots of CAB files.

195
Q

DLT

A

There are a large number of different tape formats, but CompTIA lists only one technology, Digital Linear Tape (DLT), in the CompTIA A+ Acronyms list.

196
Q

CDFS

A

Optical discs use a unique format, generally called Compact Disc File System (CDFS), but more accurately known as the ISO 9660 file system.

197
Q

ISO file

A

An ISO file is a complete copy–an ISO image, as we say–of an optical-media disc.

198
Q

NAS

A

external storage devices connecting via Ethernet. Such devices, called network attached storage (NAS) boxes, are purpose-built computers that have a narrow set of functions, namely to enable you to store data in a central location over a network.

199
Q

SOHO

A

External drives have become the go-to choice for small office/home office (SOHO) backup solutions

Comptia A+ Cert (3 decks)

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