Computer hardware

The 16550 UART ( universal asynchronous receiver transmitter) is made by National Semiconductor. Both the hardware and software interface of the 16550 are backward compatible with the earlier 16450 UART. The 16550 offers a 16- byte FIFO buffer. Now revised to the 16550D. It is an integrated circuit designed for implementing the electrical interface for serial communications; it is frequently used to implement the serial port for IBM PC compatible personal computers, where it is often connected to an RS-232 interface for modems, serial mice, printers, and similar peripherals. ...more on Wikipedia about "16550 UART"

A 19-inch rack is a standardized ( EIA 310-D, IEC 60297 and DIN 41494 SC48D) system for mounting various electronic modules in a "stack", or rack, 19 inches (482.6 mm) wide. ...more on Wikipedia about "19-inch rack"

36-bit word length describes the number of bits, 36, used in some early computers to represent data in the form of words—their basic units of addressing and calculation. ...more on Wikipedia about "36-bit word length"

8-N-1 is a common shorthand notation for a Serial port parameter setting or configuration in asynchronous mode, in which there are eight (8) data bits, no (N) parity bit, and one (1) stop bit. ...more on Wikipedia about "8-N-1"

In a computer CPU, an accumulator is a register in which intermediate arithmetic and logic results are stored. Without a register like an accumulator, it would be necessary to write the result of each calculation (addition, multiplication, shift, etc.) to main memory, perhaps only to be read right back again for use in the next operation. Access to main memory is slower than access to a register like the accumulator because the technology used for the large main memory is slower (but cheaper) than that used for a register. ...more on Wikipedia about "Accumulator (computing)"

Add-ons are optional computer hardware or software modules that supplement or enhance the original unit they are adding on to. Also known as plugins, extensions, snap-ins, or various other vendor-specific names, these modules often have proprietary interfaces that are tightly held by the company that manufactured the original unit in order to prevent competing companies from producing add-ons. ...more on Wikipedia about "Add-on"

(Advanced Communications Riser) ACR uses a 120 pin PCI connector which is reversed and offset, retaining backward compatibility with 46 pin AMR cards while including support for newer technologies. These new features include standards for an EEPROM for storing model and vendor information, USB support, and the Integrated Packet Bus for DSL, cable modem, and wireless networking support. ...more on Wikipedia about "Advanced Communications Riser"

An Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC) is a more intricate Programmable Interrupt Controller (PIC). It contains a magnitude more outputs and much more complex priority schemas. ...more on Wikipedia about "Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller"

Aircooling (also: air cooling) is one method of dissipating heat. It works by making the object to be cooled have a larger surface area or have an increased flow of air over its surface, or both. An example of the former is to add fins to the surface of the object, either by making them integral or by attaching them tightly to the object's surface (to ensure efficient heat transfer). In the case of the latter it is done by using a fan blowing air into the object one wants to cool. In many cases the addition of fins adds to the total volume of material making a heatsink that makes for greater efficiency in cooling. ...more on Wikipedia about "Aircooling"

Airhork is the first ever wireless 802.11 scanning software for the Macintosh Mac OS 8- 9 (classic) architecture. ...more on Wikipedia about "Airhork"

The AlphaSmart is a brand of portable, battery powered "smart keyboards" manufactured by AlphaSmart, Inc. ...more on Wikipedia about "AlphaSmart"

The Apple-Intel architecture is a name used for Apple Macintosh personal computers and servers developed and manufactured by Apple Computer which use Intel processors, rather than the PowerPC and 68k processors used in their predecessors. ...more on Wikipedia about "Apple-Intel architecture"

The architectural state is the part of the CPU which holds the state of ...more on Wikipedia about "Architectural state"

The arithmetic logic unit/arithmetic-logic unit (ALU) of a computer's CPU is a part of the execution unit, a core component of all CPUs. ALUs are capable of calculating the results of a wide variety of basic arithmetical computations. Virtually all modern computer ALUs use the two's complement binary number representation (whereas some early computers used either one's complement or sign-magnitude format). ...more on Wikipedia about "Arithmetic logic unit"

The audio/modem riser, also known as an AMR slot, is a special short expansion slot on the motherboard of a personal computer. It is designed to interface with special sound cards and modems. ...more on Wikipedia about "Audio/modem riser"

Auto-configuration is the automatic configuration of devices without manual intervention, without any need for software configuration programs or jumpers. Ideally, auto-configuring devices should just " Plug and Play". Autoconfiguration has been made common because of the low cost of microprocessors and other embedded controller devices. ...more on Wikipedia about "Auto-configuration"

In autodetection, the system probes the computer hardware, automatically determines what is installed in the computer and configures the kernel to support the discovered hardware. ...more on Wikipedia about "Autodetection"

A backplane is a circuit board (usually a printed circuit board) that connects several connectors in parallel to each other, so that each pin of each connector is linked to the same relative pin of all the other connectors, forming a computer bus. It is used as a backbone to connect several printed circuit board cards together to make up a complete computer system. One popular early computer system that used this approach was called the S-100 bus because the connectors used had one hundred pins. Some computers like the Apple II and the IBM PC integrated an internal backplane for expansion cards. ...more on Wikipedia about "Backplane"

The Beetle ASIC is an analogue readout chip. It is developed for the LHCb experiment at Cern. ...more on Wikipedia about "Beetle (ASIC)"

:This article refers to beige boxes in personal computing. For information about beige box phone phreaking devices, see Beige box (phreaking). ...more on Wikipedia about "Beige box"

Big Red Switch (BRS) is a hacker term for the shutdown button or power switch on a computer, especially the red "Emergency Pull" switch on IBM mainframe operator consoles. (The term has also sometimes been used for the power switch on IBM PCs: "This !@%$% bitty box is hung again; time to hit the Big Red Switch.") It is alleged that the emergency pull switch on IBM 360 Model 91s actually fired a non-conducting bolt into the main power feed; the BRSes on more recent mainframes physically drop a block into place so that they can't be pushed back in. ...more on Wikipedia about "Big Red Switch"

BIOS parameter block (BPB) is a description of the physical medium ( hard disk or floppy) that might be stored in a filesystem's Volume Boot Record. Filesystems with a BIOS parameter block include FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS. ...more on Wikipedia about "BIOS parameter block"

The bomba ( Polish for "bomb"; plural: bomby) was a special-purpose machine designed about October 1938 by Polish Cipher Bureau cryptologist Marian Rejewski to break German Enigma machine ciphers. ...more on Wikipedia about "Bomba (cryptography)"

The bong cooler or evaporative cooling tower is a bong-shaped device that is used to cool water to sub-ambient temperatures via evaporative cooling. These coolers are generally made of ABS or PVC pipe, have a diameter of a few inches, and are a few feet in height. A cold air intake branches off about 2/3's of the way down, and the area below it forms a large reservoir for the water. Installing a fan which blows into the intake is optional, but will greatly improve the effectiveness of the cooler. Without a fan, the hot air will rise and exit at the top of the cooler, while fresh air will be drawn through the intake via negative pressure. There is an atomizer or shower head at the top of the cooler which allows the water to have an extremely large surface area through which evaporation can cool the water. There must be a water pump connected to the reservoir and atomizer in order to cycle the water that drips down back up to be re-atomized. ...more on Wikipedia about "Bong cooler"

A breakout box is usually a box, in which a compound electrical connector is separated or "broken out" into its component connectors. Compound connectors (which are often proprietary) are used where sufficient space for (or access to) connections is unavailable, such as on personal computer sound cards. If there are only a few connections, then a breakout cable may be used, as is common on smaller notebook computers. ...more on Wikipedia about "Breakout box"

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