CNET 184 - CH 4

The sockets built into a PC motherboard that are designed to accommodate add-on cards, such as NICs.

The process by which a NIC driver automatically selects an operating mode (speed and duplex mode).

The number of parallel lines that make up a type of bus.

A credit-care-size expansion car used primarily to add functionality to laptops.

A speacialized collection of parallel lines in a PC used to transfer data between the CPU and peripheral devices and occasionally from one peripheral device to another.

A software program that mediates communication between an operating system and a device for the purpose of sending and recieving input and output from that device.

A high-speed external serial bus that supprts bandwidths up to 400 Mbps and can connect up to 63 devices; also known as IEEE 1394.

Originally an 8-bit PC bus architechture, but upgraded to 16-bit with the introduction of the IBM PC/AT in 1984.

A string of characters that a user must supply to wireless NIC software so that the computer can decrypt communications on a wireless LAN, therefore allowing the client to access the LAN.

The number that identifies the physical address of a network computer.

A driver standard for providing an interface between a network interface card and the network medium; this standard enables a NIC to use multiple protocols.

The hardware device that mediates communications between a computer and the networking medium.

The technique of spreading bits of data across multiple parallel data lines to transmit them simultaneously, instead of according to an orcinal and temporal sequence.

A high-speed bus standard that relies on serial communications aranged in lanes to provide communications up to 8 GBps.

The 32- and 64-bit PC bus architechture that currently prevails as the best and fastest of all available bus types, operating at 33 and 66 MHz.

The Microsoft requirements for PC motherboards, buses, adapter cards, and operating systems that enable a PC to detect and configure hardware on a system automatically.

The set of internal diagnostic and status-checking routines a PC and its peripheral devices run each time the computer is powered on.

A technique for transmitting data signals that sends each bit's worth of data (or its analog equivalent) one at a time, in sequence.

The name assigned to a wirless LAN.

A technique for a computer's CPU to address memory on an adapter as though it were the computer's own main memory.

A technique for an adapter to address a computer's main memory as though it resided on the adapter.

In terms of NICs, features that improve network accessability for remote users, especially those using applications that require higher bandiwdth, such as streaming video or multimedia.

A hot-plugged Plug and Play serial interface; USB ports support peripheral devices, such as mouses keyboards, in addition to some printers, scanners, and monitors.

A unified driver standard that allows a single driver to be written for any 32-bit version of Windows.