| scanner |
A peripheral that converts a physical object (usually something printed on paper) into a digital graphics file. |
|  |
| SCSI |
Small Computer System Interface. A high speed parallel interface. |
| |
| SDRAM |
Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory. Fast memory capable of transmitting data on every clock cycle, skipping the wait states and improving system performance. |
| |
| search engine |
A program on a remote machine that allows keyword searches on the Internet. |
| |
| secondary write-back cache |
The "secondary" refers to this type being a slower, intermediate level cache between the primary cache and the main memory. The "write-back" refers to the cache architecture, where data is only written to the main memory after it is forced out of the cache. |
| |
| SMM |
System management mode |
| |
| Socket-7 |
An optimum-performance PC design platform. Socket-7 is a widely used PC infrastructure that includes the motherboard, chipsets, and BIOS. |
| |
| sound card |
An expansion card designed for sound input and output. Sound cards can record and play back digital audio. Most also have a MIDI synthesizer, which means they can play MIDI files; some also have MIDI inputs and outputs. |
| |
| spam |
Sending copies of the same message to large numbers of newsgroups or users on the Internet. People spam the Internet to advertise products as well as to broadcast some political or social commentary. |
| |
| SVGA |
Super Video Graphics A rray. 800 600 or 1024 768 resolution. In practice, almost any resolution or color depth better than VGA. SVGA can support millions of colors, more colors than a monitor has pixels. |
| |
| system board |
The large circuit board that covers most of the bottom of the chassis. It is the heart of your computer system, containing the CPU, the expansion slots, and often, the system's random access memory (RAM). Frequently called the motherboard. |
