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Chapter 19
Glossary
- Argument
- Functions and routines are passed arguments to process.
- ARP
- Address Resolution Protocol. Used to translate IP addresses into physical hardware addresses.
- Ascii
- American Standard Code for Information Interchange. Each letter of the alphabet is represented by an 8 bit code. Ascii is most often used to store written characters.
- Bit
- A single bit of data that represents either 1 or 0 (on or off).
- Bottom Half Handler
- Handlers for work queued within the kernel.
- Byte
- 8 bits of data,
- C
- A high level programming language. Most of the Linux kernel is written in C.
- CISC
- Complex Instruction Set Computer. The opposite of RISC, a processor which supports a large number of often complex assembly instructions. The X86 architecture is a CISC architecture.
- CPU
- Central Processing Unit. The main engine of the computer, see also microprocessor and processor.
- Data Structure
- This is a set of data in memory comprised of fields,
- Device Driver
- The software controlling a particular device, for example the NCR 810 device driver controls the NCR 810 SCSI device.
- DMA
- Direct Memory Access.
- ELF
- Executable and Linkable Format. This object file format designed by the Unix System Laboratories is now firmly established as the most commonly used format in Linux.
- EIDE
- Extended IDE.
- Executable image
- A structured file containing machine instructions and data. This file can be loaded into a process's virtual memory and executed. See also program.
- Function
- A piece of software that performs an action. For example, returning the bigger of two numbers.
- IDE
- Integrated Disk Electronics.
- Image
- See executable image.
- IP
- Internet Protocol.
- IPC
- Interprocess Communiction.
- Interface
- A standard way of calling routines and passing data structures. For example, the interface between two layers of code might be expressed in terms of routines that pass and return a particular data structure. Linux's VFS is a good example of an interface.
- IRQ
- Interrupt Request Queue.
- ISA
- Industry Standard Architecture. This is a standard, although now rather dated, data bus interface for system components such as floppy disk drivers.
- Kernel Module
- A dynamically loaded kernel function such as a filesystem or a device driver.
- Kilobyte
- A thousand bytes of data, often written as Kbyte,
- Megabyte
- A million bytes of data, often written as Mbyte,
- Microprocessor
- A very integrated CPU. Most modern CPUs are Microprocessors.
- Module
- A file containing CPU instructions in the form of either assembly language instructions or a high level language like C.
- Object file
- A file containing machine code and data that has not yet been linked with other object files or libraries to become an executable image.
- Page
- Physical memory is divided up into equal sized pages.
- Pointer
- A location in memory that contains the address of another location in memory,
- Process
- This is an entity which can execute programs. A process could be thought of as a program in action.
- Processor
- Short for Microprocessor, equivalent to CPU.
- PCI
- Peripheral Component Interconnect. A standard describing how the peripheral components of a computer system may be connected together.
- Peripheral
- An intelligent processor that does work on behalf of the system's CPU. For example, an IDE controller chip,
- Program
- A coherent set of CPU instructions that performs a task, such as printing ``hello world''. See also executable image.
- Protocol
- A protocol is a networking language used to transfer application data between two cooperating processes or network layers.
- Register
- A location within a chip, used to store information or instructions.
- Register File
- The set of registers in a processor.
- RISC
- Reduced Instruction Set Computer. The opposite of CISC, that is a processor with a small number of assembly instructions, each of which performs simple operations. The ARM and Alpha processors are both RISC architectures.
- Routine
- Similar to a function except that, strictly speaking, routines do not return values.
- SCSI
- Small Computer Systems Interface.
- Shell
- This is a program which acts as an interface between the operating system and a human user. Also called a command shell, the most commonly used shell in Linux is the bash shell.
- SMP
- Symmetrical multiprocessing. Systems with more than one processor which fairly share the work amongst those processors.
- Socket
- A socket represents one end of a network connection, Linux supports the BSD Socket interface.
- Software
- CPU instructions (both assembler and high level languages like C) and data. Mostly interchangable with Program.
- System V
- A variant of Unix
TM produced in 1983, which included, amongst other things, System V IPC mechanisms. - TCP
- Transmission Control Protocol.
- Task Queue
- A mechanism for deferring work in the Linux kernel.
- UDP
- User Datagram Protocol.
- Virtual memory
- A hardware and software mechanism for making the physical memory in a system appear larger than it actually is.
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╘ 1996-1999 David A Rusling copyright notice.