|
Jargon |
Explanation |
|
SDRAM |
Synchronous Dynamic
Random Access Memory - A higher speed RAM than EDO
RAM usually has an access time of 8-12 nanoseconds. |
|
Serial ATA |
Serial ATA
is a new way of connecting your storage devices. You will all be
used to the way we connect IDE devices to out motherboards. We have a wide
40/80 pin wire plugged into both the motherboard and the storage device.
These wires are big and bulky and often get in the way of a lot of other
things inside the case. They are also based on Parallel data transmission
which sends data in parallel cause interference with other signals. Serial
connectors only have a send and receive cause much less problems in that
respect.
The serial cable
is only a small thin cable as opposed to the bulky IDE cables. This helps
with the airflow around the case and helps system cooling. The cables
themselves can also be longer than the set limit of 40cm of the IDE
cables. This makes it a lot easier to connect those awkward HD's at the
top of a tower case.
|
|
Serial Port |
A port on the back of your computer used for
connecting devices such as modems and mice - A serial port
sends data one bit at a time as opposed to the parallel
port. |
|
SGML |
Standard Generalized
Markup Language - A generic mark-up language which sets out to
transform documents by altering there appearance etc. HTML
is based on SGML |
|
SIMM |
Single Inline Memory
Module - Old memory type usually related to EDO RAM. SIMM's
have been outdated by the newer DIMM's and no longer feature in
new motherboards. |
|
Slave |
The second device on an IDE channel - the
slave device should be the slower of the two devices on a channel
as it can only be used at the speed of the master device. CD-ROM's
are normally set as slave devices when connected to a hard disk.
In the case of two hard disks the fastest drive should be selected
to be the master drive and the slower one set to slave. see Master |
|
SLI |
Scan-Line Interleave - SLI has the ability
to utilise more than one of the same component, usually a graphics
card. The Voodoo 2 range of cards could be attached together and
SLI used to split the drawing of each line effectively doubling
the speed of the card. |
|
Software |
A piece of code or programming that
allows the user to perform some sort of function. There are
different types of software from applications to system tools.
Software has a function which is what differs it from a document
which is simply data. see Application |
|
Sound card |
An expansion card for the production of sounds
and music - The sound card most commonly fits into a PCI slot
and controls what sounds come of the speakers. Different sound
cards produce different quality sounds and offer different support
for speaker systems such as Dolby 5.1 and AC-3. |
|
SRAM |
Static Random Access Memory - SRAM does
require a constant power to maintain the data it holds but unlike
DRAM it does not need to be refreshed. |
|
SSE |
Streaming SIMD Instructions - Instruction
set used my Intel to speed up processing. see 3DNOW! for
AMD's
version. |
|
SSI |
Server Side Includes - The ability to
include files from the server inside an HTML document by placing
tags in the HTML file that link to those files. |
|
STR |
Suspend To RAM - A state of your PC
whereby it enters a low power state and most of the computers
components are turned off. The small amount of power drawn is sent
to the main memory so it can store information about the computers
state before it was suspended. When woken the data in the RAM is
retrieved and the computer restored to its previous state. STR
uses less power than that of standard standby. |
