Glossary 3audioRelating to or capable of producing sound. Multimedia computers make extensiveuse of audio.AVIA digital movie format created by Microsoft. AVI is short for “audio/videointerleave,” a method of including a digital movie and its accompanying sound inthe same file. Files in the AVI format have the .AVI extension.Bbad sectorPart of a hard drive or diskette drive storage medium that doesn’t hold data.Formatting generally detects and marks these areas so they won’t be used. Certainutility programs do, too, and it is a good idea to run this type of utility occasionallyto prevent data loss if the condition of the drive changes.bandwidthA measure of how much information something can carry. Specifically, data pathtimes frequency. For example, the ISA bus has a data path of 16 bits (it can send 16bits at a time) and typically operates at 8.33 MHz, so it has a bandwidth of133.28 megabits per second (Mbps).base RAMArea of system memory between 0 and 640 kilobytes available to the user foroperating system and application programs.batch fileA file that contains a series of DOS commands. Batch files have the extension .bat.If you execute a batch file, DOS attempts to carry out all the commands in the file,in order.baudA unit of measure for modem speed. Literally, the number of voltage transitions persecond. Phone line limitations limit the actual baud rate of modems to 2400 baud,although the data transmission rate (bps) may be higher because of datacompression.BBSShort for Bulletin Board Service. Software that serves as a communication andinformation source for computers that communicate by modem.BIOSBasic Input/Output System. A program or set of programs permanently stored inROM chips installed on the system board. The BIOS contains functions that controlthe real-time clock, keyboard, disk drives, video display, and other peripheraldevices. For example, the BIOS Setup utility program is contained in the BIOS, andwhen you change the drive type, you change the BIOS.
