A maximum transmission unit (MTU) is the largest size packet or frame, specified in octets (eight-bit bytes), that can be sent in a packet- or frame-based network such as the Internet. The Internet’s Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) uses the MTU to determine the maximum size of each packet in any transmission.
DEFINITION of NTFS
NTFS (NT file system; sometimes New Technology File System) is the file system that the Windows NT operating system uses for storing and retrieving files on a hard disk. NTFS is the Windows NT equivalent of the Windows 95 file allocation table (FAT) and the OS/2 High Performance File System (HPFS). However,
DEFINITION of parallel processing
In computers, parallel processing is the processing of program instructions by dividing them among multiple processors with the objective of running a program in less time. In the earliest computers, only one program ran at a time. A computation-intensive program that took one hour to run and a tape copying program that
DEFINITION of Media Access Control layer
In the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model of communication, the Media Access Control layer is one of two sublayers of the Data Link Control layer and is concerned with sharing the physical connection to the network among several computers. Each computer has its own unique MAC address. Ethernet is an example of a
DEFINITION of EPROM
EPROM (erasable programmable read-only memory) is programmable read-only memory (programmable ROM) that can be erased and re-used. Erasure is caused by shining an intense ultraviolet light through a window that is designed into the memory chip. (Although ordinary room lighting does not contain enough ultraviolet light to
DEFINITION of Open Data-Link Interface
ODI (Open Data-Link Interface) is a software interface that allows different Data-Link Layer protocols to share the same driver or adapter in a computer. ODI was introduced by Novell. For example, using ODI, both TCP/IP and IPX/SPX can share the same device adapter.
DEFINITION of Oversubscription
Oversubscription, in a SAN (storage area network) switching environment, is the practice of connecting multiple devices to the same switch port to optimize switch use. Each SAN port can support a particular communication speed and a Fibre Channel switch may offer 1 Gb, 2 Gb, or 4 Gb FC ports. However, because
DEFINITION of NDIS
NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification) is a Windows specification for how communication protocol programs (such as TCP/IP) and network device driver should communicate with each other. NDIS specifies interfaces for:
DEFINITION of file system
1) In a computer, a file system (sometimes written file system) is the way in which files are named and where they are placed logically for storage and retrieval. The DOS, Windows, OS/2, Macintosh, and UNIX-based operating systems all have file systems in which files are placed somewhere in a hierarchical (tree) structure. A file is placed in a directory (folder in Windows) or subdirectory at the desired place in the tree structure.
DEFINITION of Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a system for chatting that involves a set of rules and conventions and client/server software. On the Web, certain sites such as Talk City or IRC networks such as the Undernet provide servers and help you download an IRC client to your PC. Talk City also offers an IRC client applet that it downloads for you as part of their home page so that you can start chatting right away.