See also the Hardware Glossary available on http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/glossary.htm.
ABR available bit rate
ACE access control entry
ACPI Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
ADA Americans with Disabilities Act
ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
ANSI American National Standards Institute
API application programming interface
APIC Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller
ARC Advanced RISC Computing
ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ASIC application-specific integrated circuit
AT IBM registered trademark for PC/AT
ATA AT Attachment
ATAPI ATA Packet Interface
ATM asynchronous transfer mode
BAR base address register
BDA BIOS Data Area
BIOS basic I/O system
bps bits per second
CBR constant bit rate
CHAP challenge handshake authentication protocol
CID Compatible ID
CIM Common Information Model
CISC complex instructions set computers
CMOS complementary metal-oxide semiconductor
COM 1. Component Object Model; 2. legacy serial port.
CSS copy scramble system
DAC digital-to-analog converter
DCE Data Communications Equipment
DDK device driver kit
DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
DLL dynamic link library
DMA direct memory access
DMI Desktop Management Interface
DMTF Desktop Management Task Force
DSVD digital simultaneous voice/data
ECC error correction code
ECP extended capabilities port
EDT European Deaf Telephone
EIDE Enhanced Integrated Device Electronics
EISA extended ISA
EPP enhanced parallel port
ESCD Extended System Configuration Data
ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute
FCD floppy disk controller
FC-PH Fibre Channel Physical, Revision 4.3
FIFO first in/first out
FSK Frequency Shift Keyed
GB gigabyte
GSM global system for mobile communications
HAL hardware abstraction layer
HCL Hardware Compatibility List
HCT Hardware Compatibility Tests
HDLC high-level data link control
HID Human Interface Device
HMMP HyperMedia Management Protocol
HSM hierarchical storage management
Hz Hertz
IDE Integrated Device Electronics
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IETF Internet Engineering Task Force
IHV independent hardware vendor
I/O input/output
IOCTL I/O control
IP Internet Protocol
IPX/SPX Internetwork Packet Exchange/Sequenced Packet Exchange protocol
IRP I/O request packet
IRQ interrupt request
ISA Industry Standard Architecture
ISDN Integrated Service Digital Network
I2O Intelligent I/O
ITU International Telecommunications Union
LAN local area network
LBA logical block addressing
LED light-emitting diode
LPT line printer
LSI large-scale integration
L2 Level 2
LUN logical unit number
MAC Media Access Control
MB megabyte
Mb/s megabits per second
MSCS Microsoft Cluster Server
MDK Modem Developers Kit
MEI Matsushita Electronics Incorporated
ms millisecond
MSDN Microsoft Developer Network
NCSC National Computer Security Center
NDIS Network Driver Interface Specification
NetBEUI NetBIOS Extended User Interface
NIUF National ISDN User’s Forum
NMI Nonmaskable Interrupt
NTMS Windows NT Media Services
OAM operation and maintenance
OEM original equipment manufacturer
OpenHCI Open Host Controller Interface
OSI Open System Interface
PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect
PCI 2.1 PCI Local Bus Specification, Revision 2.1
PCM pulse coded modulation
PIO programmed I/O
PLDA Private Loop Direct Attach
POST power-on self-test
PPP point-to-point protocol
PS/2 Personal System/2
PTT Post, Telephone, and Telegraph
QIC Quarter-Inch Cartridge
QoS Quality of Service
RADSL rate adaptive digital subscriber line
RAID retrieval and information database
RAM random access memory
RFC Request for Comments
RISC reduced instruction set computing
ROM read-only memory
rt real time
SCSI small computer system interface
SDK software developers kit
SFF Small Form Factor
SIG Special Interest Group
SMART Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology
SMP symmetric multiprocessing
SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol
SOHO small office/home office
SPID service profile identifier
STS/EN Status and Enable bits (ACPI)
SVGA Super VGA
TAPI Telephony Application Program Interface
TB terabyte
TCO total cost of ownership
TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol
TDD Telephone Device for the Deaf
TFTP Trivial File Transfer Protocol
UART Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter
UBR unspecified bit rate
UDF universal disk format
UHCI Universal Host Controller Interface
Unimodem universal modem driver
UPS uninterruptible power supply
USB Universal Serial Bus
VAR value-added retailer
VBR variable bit rate
VC virtual channel
VCI virtual channel identifier
VDM virtual device manager
VGA video graphics array
VPI virtual path identifier
WBEM Web-Based Enterprise Management
WDL Windows Driver Library
WDM Windows Driver Model
WfM Wired for Management
WHQL Windows Hardware Quality Laboratory
WMI Windows Management Instrumentation