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R
RAID | RAM |
RDRAM |
Registry
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Resolution
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RGB |
RISC |
ROM |
Root |
Router
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RTF |
Runtime
RAID
Stands for "Redundant Array of
Independent Disks." RAID is a method of storing data on multiple hard disks.
When disks are arranged in a RAID configuration, the computer sees them all as
one large disk. However, they operate much more efficiently than a single hard
drive. Since the data is spread out over multiple disks, the reading and writing
operations can take place on multiple disks at once. This can speed up hard
drive access time significantly. Multiple hard drives may not improve hard disk
performance as much as multiple processors may enhance the CPU performance, but
it is based on a similar logic.
The benefits of RAID come from a technique called "striping," which splits up
the stored data among the available drives. The "stripes" of data are usually a
couple of megabytes large and are interleaved between the drives. The striping
system also increases the mean time between failure (MTBF), when reading data.
This allows more data to be read accurately in a short period of time. The
benefits of the RAID system are especially noticeable when storing large amounts
of data. Therefore, many Web hosting and Internet Service Providers use RAID to
store data for their clients.
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RAM
Stands for "Random Access
Memory," and is pronounced like the male sheep. RAM is made up of small memory
chips that are connected to the motherboard of your computer. Every time you
open a program, it gets loaded from the hard drive into the RAM. This is because
reading data from the RAM is much faster than reading data from the hard drive.
Running programs from the RAM of the computer allows them to function without
any lag time. The more RAM your computer has, the more data can be loaded from
the hard drive into the RAM, which can help speed up your computer. In fact,
adding RAM can be more beneficial to your computer's performance than upgrading
the CPU.
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RDRAM
Stands for "Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory." It is a type of RAM made by
Rambus (big surprise) and is the fastest type of computer memory available.
Typical SDRAM can transfer data at speeds up to 133 MHz, while standard RDRAM
can crank it up over 1 GHz. Though some motherboards can use RDRAM as system
memory, it is so fast, most boards cannot fully benefit from the speed. Because
of this, RDRAM is typically used for video memory on graphics accelerator cards,
for cache memory (located on the CPU), and for system memory in high-performance
workstations and servers.
An improvement to RDRAM called Direct Rambas (DRDRAM) allows for even faster
data transfer rates. DRDRAM uses a 16-bit bus rather than the 8-bit bus DRAM
uses, which means it can handle 8 operations at once and can transfer data at a
speeds of 1.6 GHz. Now that's fast.
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Registry
This is a database used by Microsoft Windows to store configuration information
about the software installed on a computer. This information includes things
like the desktop background, program settings, and file extension associations.
The Windows registry consists of the following six parts:
HKEY_User - contains the user information for each user of the system.
HKEY_Current_User - has all the preferences for the current user.
HKEY_Current_Configuration - stores settings for the display and
printers.
HKEY_Classes_Root - includes file associations and OLE information.
HKEY_Local_Machine - has the settings for the hardware, operating system,
and installed applications.
HKEY_Dyn_Data - includes performance data.
When you install a program, it will usually write some data to the computer's
registry. If you want to manually edit the registry for some reason, you can use
the "regedit.exe" program, which comes with the Windows operating system.
However, you should not edit the registry if you don't know what you're doing
because it could disable your computer.
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Resolution
This term can describe either how
many pixels a monitor can display or how fine a printer can print.
1. Monitors. A small monitor may have a resolution or 640 x 480, which
means there are 640 pixels horizontally across the screen and 480 pixels
vertically. Some other common monitor resolutions are 800 x 600, 1,024 x 768,
and 1,280 x 1,024. The higher the resolution, the more that can be displayed on
the screen.
2. Printers. Printer resolution measures how fine a printer can print.
This measurement is known as dots per inch, or "dpi." The greater the dpi, the
better the image clarity. Scanner resolution is also measured in dpi.
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RGB
Stands for "Red-Green-Blue." It refers to the three hues of light (red, green,
and blue, for those of you that are a little slow), that can mix together to
form any color. When the highest intensity of each color is mixed together,
white light is created. When each hue is set to zero intensity, the result is
black. TVs and computer monitors use RGB to create the colorful images you see
on the screen. In print, however, the 4 colors -- cyan, yellow, magenta, and
black (CYMK) are used to create color images.
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RISC
Stands for "Reduced Instruction Set Computing, "and is pronounced "risk." It is
arguably the fastest and most efficient microprocessor technology available
today. The RISC architecture is an improvement upon the CISC (Complex
Instruction Set Computing) architecture used in the original Intel Pentium
chips. In 1974, John Cocke of IBM Research was working on making a faster
version of the CISC chip and came up with a design that significantly reduced
the number of instructions need for performing computations. The new design was
not only faster than the CISC architecture, but the chips were also smaller and
less expensive to manufacture. Motorola's PowerPC chips (such as the G4 in Power
Macs) are the most widely used RISC-based chips. Intel has slowly been
integrating RISC technology into its chips, but they still are mostly CISC-based.
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ROM
Stands for "Read-Only Memory." Please do not confuse this term with RAM or a
hard drive, as many people already do. ROM is memory containing hardwired
instructions that the computer uses when it boots up, before the system software
loads. In PCs, the instructions are read from a small program in the ROM, called
the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System).
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Root
This computer term actually has nothing to do with trees or root beer. Instead,
it is commonly used in reference to a computer's directory structure. The root
directory is the top-level directory of a file system. For example, on a
Windows-based PC, "C:\" would be the root directory of the C drive. On a Web
server, the root directory is usually designated by just a forward slash ("/ ").
So, on a Unix system, you would type "cd /" (change directory to root) to go to
the root directory. Root is also the name of the user who has complete
administrative privileges on a Unix or Linux server. While most users can only
access their own directory (i.e. "/www/users/~fred/"), the root user can access
any folder from the root directory down. This allows the root user to make
system changes such as modifying the permissions of other users without telling
them.
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Router
This is a hardware device that routes data (hence the name) from a local area
network (LAN) to another network connection. A router acts like a coin sorting
machine, allowing only authorized machines to connect to other computer systems.
Most routers also keep log files about the local network activity.
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RTF
Stands for "Rich Text Format." This is a file format standardized by Microsoft
for creating formatted text files. Unlike a basic text file, an RTF file can
include information such as text style, size, and color. The nice thing about
the RTF format is that it is a universal format, meaning it can be read by
nearly all word processors.
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Runtime
When a program is running, or executing, it is said to be in runtime. The term
is mostly used by software developers to specify when errors in a program occur.
A "runtime error" is an error that happens while the program is executing. For
example, if a program told you that 2 + 2 was 5000, that would be a runtime
error. A memory leak, where the program sucks up excessive amounts of system
memory is also a runtime error. The other major type of program error is a
compile-time error, where the application will not even compile into an
executable program. Examples of compile-time errors are syntax errors in the
program code and file linking errors. Runtime is a good term to know, but you
most likely won't hear it used very often unless you like to hang out with
computer nerds.
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