Snow Chains

Snow chains are devices fixed to tyres to improve traction when driving through snow or ice. Driving with chains will reduce fuel efficiency and limits speeds to 30mph.

DVD Format

DVDs use MPEG-2 compression to record the moving pictures (25-29 frames per second). Audio can be in a variety of formats including PCM, DTS, MP2 or AC3. PAL players require at least one of PCM, MP2 or AC3 formats. DVDs can contain more than one channel of audio to go with the video.

Some DVD players will also play raw mpg files, these are "unauthored" and lack the file and header structure that defined DVD VIDEO. Audio, video and so forth are multiplexed into VOB (Video Object) container format. EVO stands for Enhanced VOB.

Math co-processors

1980s - co-processors for floating pointing arithmetic became common, popular with purchases of CAD software. Intel and Weitek were producers of math-coprocessor hardware. By 1990s, most CPU designs had FPUs built into the main chip basically "for free".

What is a TIFF file?

TIFF = Tagged Image File Format, developed by Aldus Systems, now known as Adobe.

Casio School Calculators

The CASIO fx-series are a host of school calculators running of 1.5V DC battery. They have an associated education website as well. It implements a feature called "Natural Display" so you see equations (with brackets, powers etc) as if they are written on the page. To achieve this, the fx-series has a slightly "taller" LCD screen than some other calculators.

What is ATA or IDE drive? What is ATAPI? What is DVI?

They mean the same thing. ATA stands for "AT Attachment" and IDE stands for "Integrated Drive Electronics", interface used to connect hard disks and optical disks to the PC. Compared to SCSI interface, IDE is more economical. ATAPI is ATA for peripherals like CD-ROM.

DVI stands for Digital Video Interface; it's a video interface standard.

What is 800Mhz FSB?

FSB is the FRONT SIDE BUS. You will typically have computer speed quoted as i) main processor speed (e.g. 2.4Ghz), plus ii) FSB speed (e.g. 800Mhz). The FSB is the bus (or communication channel) that carries data between the CPU and the Northbridge. The "Northbrige" connects to video card and RAM and "Southbridge" deals with APM, USB, real-time clock etc.

Northbridge plays a role in overclocking - basically running an electronic component at a higher clock rate than the manufacturer designed it for. The frequency of the northbridge is used as a baseline for CPU to establish its own operating frequency.