|
Term
|
Description
|
|
UART
|
Universal
Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter. A communication chip that converts
parallel bytes into singular bits for serial transmission over
modems and serial ports. Because it's not synchronized with the
system clock, a UART chip also has the receiving and transmitting
circuits needed for start and stop signals that tell the communicating
devices when a packet of information starts and ends. |
|
Universal
Resource Locator
|
See
URL. |
|
Upper
Memory
|
Upper
Memory is the memory addresses between 640K and 1024K. On the
DOS Memory Map, Upper Memory is that area between Conventional
Memory and Extended Memory reserved for System BIOS and video
information. Also called Reserved Memory. |
|
UPS
|
Uninterruptible
Power Supply. A UPS is basically a battery back-up system for
your computer. It acts as a surge suppressor, filtering line noise
and providing protection against spikes. But, in the event of
a power outage it keeps your computer up and running, sounding
an alarm and allowing you to close any running programs and shut
down your computer safely. |
|
URL
|
Universal
Resource Locater. Simply, the address to a website on the Internet.
To help better explain the parts, lets look at /glossaryu.htm.
The 'http://' tells you the document type (it uses the HTTP protocol).
Next, 'www' tells you it's on the World Wide Web and 'pccomputernotes'
is the domain name (the name of the computer where the document
is stored). The '.com' tells you the type of domain (commercial,
in this case), and the 'glossaryu.htm' is the name of the document.
If you don't see a document name (eg. )
then it displays the default document for that domain, usually
'default.htm' or 'index.htm'. |
|
USB
|
A
Universal Serial Bus is an external bus with a maximum transfer
speed of 12 megabits per second. It's hot-swappable, which means
that a device can be connected or disconnected while the computer
is running. The Operating System can recognise and use the device
as soon as its plugged in. Up to 127 devices can be daisy-chained
together. |
|
User Profile
|
A
file kept in the Registry that contains a user's desktop settings
and personal setup preferences to be retained from session to
session. |
