Terminology

Abbreviations used throughout this manual and the specifications it follows.

AC	Alternating Current.
ACPI	Advanced Configuration and Power Interface.
AGP	Accelerated Graphics Port.
APM	Advanced Power Management.
ASCII	American Standard Code for Information Interchange.
ATA	Advanced Technology Attachment.
ATAPI	ATA Packet Interface.
BCD	Binary-Coded Decimal.
BIOS	Basic Input/Output System.
BMC	Baseboard Management Controller.
CGA	Color Graphics Array.
CMOS	Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor. "CMOS" is commonly used as a shorthand for "CMOS RAM", the non-volatile RAM used on industry-standard PCs.
CPU	Central Processing Unit.
CPUID	CPU Identification.
CRC	Cyclic Redundancy Check.
DDC	Display Data Channel.
DDR	Double Data Rate SDRAM.
DIMM	Dual In-line Memory Module.
DMA	Direct Memory Access.
DMI	Desktop Management Interface.
DRAM	Dynamic RAM.
DSP	Digital Signal Processing.
ECC	Error Checking and Correction.
EDD	Enhanced Disk Drive.
EDO	Extended Data Out.
EEPROM	Electrically Erasable PROM.
EISA	Extended Industry-Standard Architecture.
EPS	Entry Point Structure.
ESCD	Extended System Configuration Data.
FDC	Floppy Drive Controller.
FIFO	First In, First Out.
FPGA	Field-Programmable Gate Array.
GPNV	General-Purpose NVRAM.
I2O	Intelligent Input/Output.
IEPS	Intermediate Entry Point Structure.
IO	Input/Output
IPMI	Intelligent Platform Management Interface.
IRQ	Interrupt Request.
ISA	Industry Standard Architecture.
LIF	Low Insertion Force.
LSB	Least-Significant Bit.
MCA	Micro Channel Architecture.
MOF	Managed Object Format.
MSB	Most Significant Bit.
NIC	Network Interface Card.
NMI	Non-Maskable Interrupt.
NV	Non-Volatile.
NVRAM	Non-Volatile RAM.
OEM	Original Equipment Manufacturer.
OS	Operating System.
PATA	Parallel ATA.
PCI	Peripheral Component Interconnect.
PCIe	Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCI Express).
PCMCIA	Personal Computer Memory Card International Association.
PME	Power Management Event.
PNP	Plug-And-Play.
POST	Power-On Self-Test.
PROM	Programmable ROM.
PXE	Pre-boot Execution Environment.
RAID	Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks.
RAM	Random-Access Memory.
ROM	Read-Only Memory.
RPM	Revolutions per Minute.
RTC	Real-Time Clock.
SAS	Serial-Attached SCSI.
SATA	Serial ATA.
SCSI	Small Computer System Interface.
SDRAM	Synchronous DRAM.
SIMM	Single In-line Memory Module.
SKU	Stock-Keeping Unit.
SMBus	System Management Bus.
SMM	System Management Module.
SRAM	Static RAM.
TPM	Trusted Platform Module.
UEFI	Unified Extensible Firmware Interface.
UPS	Uninterruptible Power Supply.
USB	Universal Serial Bus.
UUID	Universally Unique Identifier.
VESA	Video Electronics Standards Association.
VL-VESA	VESA Video Local Bus.
ZIF	Zero Insertion Force.