P's & Q's Flashcards
PaaS
(Platform as a Service)
A cloud computing service that enables consumers to rent fully configured systems that are set up for specific purposes.
PAN
(Personal Area Network)
Close range networking (usually based on Bluetooth or NFC) allowing communications between personal devices, such as smartphones, laptops, and printers/peripheral devices.
PAT (portable)
(portable appliance testing)
In the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, the process for inspecting and testing electrical equipment to ensure its safety.
PAT (port)
(port address translation)
Another term for NAT overloading or NAPT.
PATA
(Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment)
Used to be the main disk interface for PCs. The interface was very commonly called IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) or Enhanced IDE (EIDE). Each PATA adapter supports two devices, commonly called master and slave. A drive is connected to the bus by a 40-pin ribbon cable. The PATA interface has been replaced by SATA.
PCI bus
(Peripheral Component Interconnect bus)
Introduced in 1995 with the Pentium processor, it connects the CPU, memory, and peripherals to a 32-bit working at 33MHz. PCI supports bus mastering, IRQ steering, and Plug-and-Play. Later versions defined 64-bit operation and 66 MHz clock but were not widely adopted on desktop PCs.
PCIe
(PCI Express)
An expansion bus standard using serial communications. Each device on the bus can create a point-to-point link with the I/O controller or another device. The link comprises one or more lanes (x1,x2, x4, x8, x12, x16, or x32). Each lane supports a full-duplex transfer rate of 250MBps (v1.0), 500 MBps (v2.0), or 1 GBps(v3.0). The standard is software compatible with PCI, allowing for motherboards with both types of connectors.
PDL
(page description language)
A high-level computer language used to describe the contents and the layout of the information to be printed on a page through PDL commands.
PGA
(Pin Grid Array)
A CPU socket form factor where pins are located on the bottom of the processor to fit in the matching holes in the motherboard socket. PGA-type sockets are still used by AMD but Intel has switched to Land Grid Array (LGA), where the pins are located on the socket rather than the chip.
PGP
(Pretty Good Privacy)
Email encryption product providing message confidentiality and integrity using web of trust PGP certificates.
PoP
(Point of Presence)
The equipment that allows a location, facility, home, or other point-of-access to connect to the Internet.
POP 3
(Post Office Protocol)
A TCP/IP application protocol providing a means for a client to access email messages stored in a mailbox on a remote server. The server usually deletes messages once the client has downloaded them. POP3 utilizes TCP port110.
POST
(Power-On Self-Test)
A hardware checking routine built into the PC firmware. This test sequentially monitors the state of the memory chips, the processor, system clock, display, and firmware itself. Errors that occur within vital components such as these are signified by beep codes emitted by the internal speaker of the computer. Further tests are then performed and any errors displayed as on-screen error codes and messages.
POTS
(Plain Old Telephone System)
Parts of a telephone network “local loop” using voice-grade cabling. Analog data transfer over POTS using dial-up modems is slow(33.3 Kbps). DSL technologies make better use of the bandwidth available, but are not accessible over all of the network.
PPP
(Point-to-Point Protocol)
Dial-up protocol working at layer 2 (Data Link) used to connect devices remotely to networks. Often used to connect to an ISP’s routers and out to the Internet. PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet) or PPPoA (PPP over ATM) are used to provide broadband connections(over DSL or cable Internet, for instance).