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`SECOND EDITION
`
`THE COMPREHENSIVE
`
`STANDARD FOR
`
`BUSINESS, SCHOOL,
`
`
`
`LIBRARY, AND HOME
`
`Page 1 of4
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`INTEL 1014
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`INTEL 1014
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`Page 1 of 4
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`I>r, · QA 70 , /5, 1'15'1 ;qqf
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`MICROSOFT PRESS®
`
`RECEIVED
`
`OCT 01 2008
`
`� OMPUTE«ru·
`
`_JCTIONARY
`
`SECOND EDITION
`
`------�-----
`THE COMPREHENSIVE
`
`STANDARD FOR
`
`BUSINESS, SCHOOL,
`
`LIBRARY, AND HOME
`
`Page 2 of 4
`
`

`

`I
`
`p
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`PUBLISHED BY
`Microsoft Press
`.
`A Division of Microsoft Corporation
`One Microsoft Way
`d nd Washington 98052-6399
`Re mo ,
`Copyright© 1994 by Microsoft Press
`.
`d N part of the contents of this book may be reproduced or
`All nghts reserve · 0
`. . f rm or by any means without
`· · f h bl" h
`the wntten perm1ss1on
`o t e pu 1s er.
`transmmed m any o
`Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Public
`ation Data
`. f p ss computer dictionary : the comprehensive standard for
`M1croso t re
`t Press.
`business, school, library, and home / Microsof
`- -2nd ed.
`p.cm.
`
`ISBN 1-55615-597-2
`naries.1.Computers--Dictionaries. 2. Microcomputers--Dictio
`
`
`
`I.Microsoft Press. II. Title: Computer dictionary.
`1993
`QA76.15.M54
`004' .03--dc20
`
`·
`
`93-29868
`CIP
`
`
`
`Printed and bound in the United States of America.
`
`5 6789 MLML 9 8 76 5
`
`
`
`Distributed to the book trade in Canada by Macmillan of Canada, a division of Canada
`
`
`
`
`
`Publishing Corporation.
`
`Distributed to the book trade outside the United States and Canada by
`
`
`
`
`Penguin Books Ltd.
`
`Penguin
`Books Ltd., Harmondsworth,
`Middlesex,
`England
`Penguin
`Books Australia Ltd., Ringwood, Victoria, Australia
`Penguin
`Books N.Z. Ltd., 182-190
`Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand
`British
`Cataloging-in-Publication
`Data available.
`
`Project
`Editor:
`Casey D. Doyle
`Manuscript
`Editor:
`Alice Copp Smith
`Technical Editors: Ma D J J ff
`ry e ong, e Carey,
`Dail Magee,Jr.,Jim
`Fuchs,
`Seth McEvoy
`
`Page 3 of 4
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`

`

`capstan
`
`n
`
`charge at a potential of 1 volt. In practical use, a
`greater (although not significan
`htrad is an extremely large amount of capa 1_
`tly greater)
`than avallable storage space.
`Ce. typical capacitors have values In th mi
`•
`can ·
`.
`crofarads oo·<>) or picofarads 00·12).
`•Channel capacity
`Is the maximum speed at
`which a communications channel
`acltor A circuit component
`that provides a
`can
`cap
`transfer data within
`k own amount of capacitance (ability to store an
`or between computers.
`n
`electric charge). A capacitor typi ally consi ts of
`• Memory capacity is, in terms of microcom­
`cwo conductive plates separated by an insulating
`puters, usually considered
`the amount of
`(dielectric) material. If oth r factor remain con­
`random access
`memory {RAM) in a com­
`stant, capacitance increases
`as the plates are
`puter. Often,
`however, the term is used to
`made larger or brought closer. together. A capaci­
`describ
`e the amounts
`of both RAM and
`ROM (read-only
`tor blocks direct current but passes alternating
`memory).
`current to an extent that depends on its capaci­
`•Processi
`ng capacity
`refers
`to the maximum
`tance and on the frequency of th current.
`In the
`number of operations
`that a process
`or can
`illustration, note the vertical band and the shorter
`handle
`in a given unit of time, often ex­
`lead on the electrolytic capacit
`or; these identify
`pressed
`in MIPS (millions
`per
`of operations
`the negative lead of the device. (Electrolyti
`c ca­
`second)
`or FLOPS (floating-point
`opera­
`pacitors are polarized; others, such as the ceramic
`tions per second).
`are not.)
`disk,
`number of bits
`is t�e total
`capacity
`•Register
`in a microprocessor
`or bytes that a register
`can store.
`the capitali­
`All caps indicates
`letters.
`caps Capital
`caps indicates
`the
`zation of each. letter;
`initial
`of the first letter of each signif)c;mt
`capitalization
`see also uppercase.
`word. Compare lowercase;
`when on, shifts
`key that,
`Caps Lock key A toggle
`on the keyboard
`to up­
`characters
`the alphabetic
`The Caps Lock key does not affect
`num­
`percase.
`or other symbols.
`bers, punctuation
`marks,
`metal post
`a-polished
`capstan On a tape recorder,
`which a turning rubber wheel (called
`_a
`against
`to move a length of magnetic
`presses
`pinch roller)
`the wheel and the p_ost. The
`tape placed between
`the speed of the tape as it moves
`capstan controls
`head. See the illustration.
`past the recording
`
`Capadlor.
`Two of sftleral lmuls of c11p_ac1tors: ceramic
`(rlgbt).
`disc (left) and et«trolytk
`capacity The amount of information a compu�er
`or store. W 1th
`.
`or an attached deV1ce can proc ess
`respect to specific parts of a computer system:
`•Disk capacity is the total number of bytes
`(characters) a disk can hold. Because _the
`f mputer requires
`operating system o a co
`d
`some space on the disk for its own use, a�
`because flies on a disk are stored in b�oc
`rather than byte by byte, disk capacity 15
`
`..
`
`.
`
`
`
`Pinch roller
`
`/ .,;¥-)·
`
`.�
`
`Capstan.
`
`63
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`Page 4 of 4
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