Glossary

See also the Hardware Glossary available on http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/glossary.htm.

Acronyms and Abbreviations

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