1 # Firmware and Computer Acronyms, Initialisms and Definitions
3 ** Note that this document even more of a work in progress than most **
4 ** of the coreboot documentation **
8 * _XXX - An underscore followed by 3 uppercase letters will typically be
9 an ACPI specified method. Look in the [ACPI
10 Spec](https://uefi.org/specifications) for details, or run the tool
12 * 2FA - [**Two-factor Authentication**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-factor_authentication)
13 * 4G - In coreboot, this typically refers to the 4 gibibyte boundary of 32-bit addressable memory space.
14 Better abbreviated as 4GiB
15 * 5G - Telecommunication: [**Fifth-Generation Cellular Network**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G)
18 * ABI - [**Application Binary Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_binary_interface)
19 * ABL - AMD: AGESA BootLoader (or AMD BootLoader) - The portion of the AMD processor
20 initialization that happens from the PSP. Significantly, Memory
22 * AC - Electricity: [**Alternating Current**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternating_current)
23 * Ack - Acknowledgment
24 * ACM – [**Authenticated Code Module**](https://doc.coreboot.org/security/intel/acm.html)
25 * ACP - [**Average CPU power**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_design_power)
26 * ACPI - The [**Advanced Configuration and Power
27 Interface**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Configuration_and_Power_Interface)
28 is an industry standard for letting the OS control power management.
29 * [http://www.acpi.info/](http://www.acpi.info/)
30 * [http://kernelslacker.livejournal.com/88243.html](http://kernelslacker.livejournal.com/88243.html)
31 * ADC - [**Analog-to-Digital Converter**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog-to-digital_converter)
32 * ADL - Intel: [**Alder Lake**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/microarchitectures/alder_lake)
33 * AES - [**Advanced Encryption Standard**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Encryption_Standard)
34 * AGESA - [**AMD Generic Encapsulated Software Architecture**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGESA_)
35 * AGP - The [**Accelerated Graphics
36 Port**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Graphics_Port) is an
37 older (1997-2004) point-to-point bus for video cards to communicate
39 * AHCI - The [**Advanced Host Controller
40 Interface**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Host_Controller_Interface)
41 is a standard register set for communicating with a SATA controller.
42 * [http://www.intel.com/technology/serialata/ahci.htm](http://www.intel.com/technology/serialata/ahci.htm)
43 * [http://download.intel.com/technology/serialata/pdf/rev1_3.pdf](http://download.intel.com/technology/serialata/pdf/rev1_3.pdf)
45 * AIO - Computer formfactor: [**All In One**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_computer#All-in-one)
46 * ALIB - AMD: ACPI-ASL Library
47 * ALS - [**Ambient Light Sensor**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambient_light_sensor)
48 * ALU - [**Arithmetic Logic Unit**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arithmetic_logic_unit)
49 * AMBA - ARM: [**Advanced Microcontroller Bus
50 Architecture**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Microcontroller_Bus_Architecture):
51 An open standard to connect and manage functional blocks in an SoC
53 * AMD64 - Another name for [**x86-64**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64)
54 * AMPL - AMD: [**Advanced Platform Management Link**](https://web.archive.org/web/20220509053546/https://developer.amd.com/wordpress/media/2012/10/419181.pdf) - Also referred to as
55 SBI: Sideband Interface
56 * AMT - Intel: [**Active Management Technology**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Active_Management_Technology)
57 * ANSI - [**American National Standards Institute**](American_National_Standards_Institute)
58 * AOAC - AMD: Always On, Always Connected
59 * AP - Application processor - The main processor on the board (as
60 opposed to the embedded controller or other processors that may be on
61 the system), any cores in the processor chip that aren't the BSP (Boot
63 * APCB - AMD: AMD PSP Customization Block
64 * API - [**Application Programming Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/API)
65 * APIC - [**Advanced Programmable Interrupt
66 Controller**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Programmable_Interrupt_Controller)
67 this is an advanced version of a PIC that can handle interrupts from
68 and for multiple CPUs. Modern systems usually have several APICs:
69 Local APICs (LAPIC) are CPU-bound, IO-APICs are bridge-bound.
70 * [http://osdev.berlios.de/pic.html](http://osdev.berlios.de/pic.html)
71 * APL - Intel: [**Apollo Lake**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/cores/apollo_lake)
72 * APM - [**Advanced Power Management**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Power_Management) - The standard for power management
73 before ACPI (Yes, they’re both advanced). APM was managed entirely by
74 the firmware and the operating system had no control or even awareness
75 of the power management.
76 * APOB - AMD: [**AGESA PSP Output Buffer**](https://doc.coreboot.org/soc/amd/family17h.html#additional-definitions)
77 * APU - AMD: [**Accelerated Processing Unit**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_Accelerated_Processing_Unit)
78 * ARC - HDMI: [**Audio Return Channel**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#ARC)
79 * ARM - [**Advanced RISC Machines**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arm_%28company%29) - Originally Acorn RISC Machine. This
80 may refer to either the company or the instruction set.
81 * ARP - Networking: [**Address Resolution Protocol**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Address_Resolution_Protocol)
82 * ASCII - [**American Standard Code for Information Interchange**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII)
83 * ASEG - The A_0000h-B_FFFFh memory segment - this area was typically
84 hidden by the Video BIOS
85 * ASF - [**Alert Standard Format**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alert_Standard_Format)
86 * ASL - [**ACPI Source Language**](https://uefi.org/htmlspecs/ACPI_Spec_6_4_html/19_ASL_Reference/ACPI_Source_Language_Reference.html)
87 * ASLR - Address Space Layout Randomization
88 * ASP - AMD: AMD Security Processor (Formerly the PSP - Platform
90 * ASPM - PCI: [**Active State Power
91 Management**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_State_Power_Management)
92 * ATA - [**Advanced Technology Attachment**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_ATA)
93 * ATAPI - [**ATA Packet Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_ATA#ATAPI)
94 * ATX - [**Advanced Technology eXtended**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX)
95 * AVX - [**Advanced Vector Extensions**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Vector_Extensions)
100 * BAR - [**Base Address Register**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_Address_Register) This generally refers to one of the
101 base address registers in the PCI config space of a PCI device
102 * Baud - [**Baud**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baud) - Not an acronym - Symbol rate unit of symbols per second, named
104 * BBS - [**BIOS boot specification**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Option_ROM#BIOS_Boot_Specification)
105 * BCD - [**Binary-Coded Decimal**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary-coded_decimal)
106 * BCT - Intel: [**Binary Configuration Tool**](https://github.com/intel/BCT)
107 * BDA - [**BIOS Data Area**](http://www.bioscentral.com/misc/bda.htm) This refers to the memory area of 0x40:0000 which is where the original PC-BIOS stored its data tables.
108 * BDF - [**BUS, Device, Function**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_configuration_space#Technical_information) - A way of referencing a PCI Device
110 * BDS - UEFI: [**Boot-Device Select**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface#BDS_%E2%80%93_Boot_Device_Select)
111 * BDW - Intel: [**Broadwell**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/microarchitectures/broadwell_%28client%29)
112 * BERT - ACPI: [**Boot Error Record Table**](https://uefi.org/specs/ACPI/6.4/18_ACPI_Platform_Error_Interfaces/error-source-discovery.html)
113 * BGA - [**Ball Grid Array**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_grid_array)
114 * BGP - Networking: [**Border Gateway Protocol**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_Gateway_Protocol)
115 * Big Real mode - Real mode running in a way that allows it to access
116 the entire 4GiB of the 32-bit address space. Also known as flat mode
117 or [**Unreal mode**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_mode).
118 * BIOS - [**Basic Input/Output
119 System**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS)
120 * BIST - The [**Built-in Self Test**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Built-in_self-test) is a test run by the processor on
121 itself when it is first started. Usually, any nonzero value indicates
122 that the selftest failed.
123 * Bit-banging - [**Bit-banging**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_banging) - A term for the method of emulating a more complex
124 protocol by using GPIOs.
125 * BKDG - AMD: [**Bios & Kernel Developers' guide**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/amd/List_of_AMD_publications) (Replaced by the PPR -
126 Processor Programming Reference)
127 * BLOB - [**Binary Large OBject**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_large_object) - Originally a collection of binary files
128 stored as a single object, this was co-opted by the open source
129 communities to mean any proprietary binary file that is not available
131 * BM - [**Bus Master**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_mastering)
132 * BMC - [**Baseboard Management Controller**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_Platform_Management_Interface#Baseboard_management_controller)
133 * BMP - [**Bitmap**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMP_file_format)
134 * BOM - [**Bill of Materials**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_materials)
135 * BPDT - Boot Partition Description Table
136 * bps - Bits Per Second
137 * BS - coreboot: Boot State - coreboot's ramstage sequence are made up
138 of boot states. Each of these states can be hooked to run functions
139 before the stat, during the state, or after the state is complete.
140 * BSF - Intel: [**Boot Specification File**](https://www.intel.com/content/dam/develop/external/us/en/documents/boot-setting-1-0-820293.pdf)
141 * BSP - BootStrap Processor - The initialization core of the main
142 system processor. This is the processor core that starts the boot
144 * BSS - [**Block Starting Symbol**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.bss)
145 * BT - [**Bluetooth**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth)
146 * Bus - Initially a term for a number of connectors wired together in
147 parallel, this is now used as a term for any hardware communication
149 * BWG - Intel: BIOS Writers Guide
153 * C-states: ACPI Processor Idle states.
154 [**C-States**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/acpi/c-states) C0-Cx: Each
155 higher number saves more power, but takes longer to return to a fully
157 * C0 - ACPI Defined Processor Idle state: Active - CPU is running
158 * C1 - ACPI Defined Processor Idle state: Halt - Nothing currently
159 running, but can start running again immediately
160 * C2 - ACPI Defined Processor Idle state: Stop-clock - core clocks off
161 * C3 - ACPI Defined Processor Idle state: Sleep - L1 & L2 caches may be
162 saved to Last Level Cache (LLC), core powered down.
163 * C4+ - Processor Specific idle states
164 * CAR - [**Cache As RAM**](https://web.archive.org/web/20140818050214/https://www.coreboot.org/data/yhlu/cache_as_ram_lb_09142006.pdf)
165 * CBFS - coreboot filesystem
166 * CBMEM - coreboot Memory
167 * CBI - Google: [**CrOS Board Information**](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/HEAD/design_docs/cros_board_info.md)
168 * CDN - [**Content Delivery Network**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_delivery_network)
169 * CEM - PCIe: [**Card ElectroMechanical**](https://members.pcisig.com/wg/PCI-SIG/document/folder/839) specification
170 * CFL - [**Coffee Lake**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/microarchitectures/coffee_lake)
171 * CID - [**Coverity ID**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity)
172 * CIM - [**Common Information Model**](https://www.dmtf.org/standards/cim)
173 * CISC - [**Complex Instruction Set Computer**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_instruction_set_computer)
174 * CL - ChangeList - Another name for a patch or commit. This seems to be
176 * CLK - Clock - Used when there isn't enough room for 2 additional
177 characters - similar to RST, for people who hate vowels.
178 * CML - Intel: [**Comet Lake**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/microarchitectures/comet_lake)
179 * CMOS - [**Complementary Metal Oxide
180 Semiconductor**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonvolatile_BIOS_memory)
181 - This is a method of making ICs (Integrated Circuits). For BIOS, it’s
182 generally used to describe a section of NVRAM (Non-volatile RAM), in
183 this case a section battery-backed memory in the RTC (Real Time Clock)
184 that is typically used to store BIOS settings.
185 *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonvolatile_BIOS_memory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonvolatile_BIOS_memory)
186 * CNL - Intel: [**Cannon Lake**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/microarchitectures/cannon_lake) (formerly Skymont)
187 * CNVi - Intel: [**Connectivity Integration**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNVi)
188 * CPL - x86: Current Privilege Level - Privilege levels range from 0-3; lower numbers are more privileged.
189 * CPLD - [**Complex Programmable Logic Device**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_programmable_logic_device)
190 * CPPC - AMD: Collaborative Processor Performance Controls
191 * CPS - Characters Per Second
192 * CPU - [**Central Processing
193 Unit**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_processing_unit)
194 * CPUID - x86: [**CPU Identification**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPUID) opcode
195 * Cr50 - Google: The first generation Google Security Chip (GSC) used on
197 * CRB - Customer Reference Board
198 * CRLF - Carriage Return, Line Feed - \\r\\n - The standard window EOL
199 (End-of-Line) marker.
200 * crt0 - [**C Run Time 0**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crt0)
201 * crt0s - crt0 Source code
202 * CRT - [**Cathode Ray Tube**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathode-ray_tube)
203 * CSE - Intel: Converged Security Engine
204 * CSI - MIPI: [**Camera Serial
205 Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_Serial_Interface)
206 * CSME - Intel: Converged Security and Management Engine
207 * CTLE - Intel: Continuous Time Linear Equalization
208 * CVE - [**Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Vulnerabilities_and_Exposures)
209 * CZN - AMD: [**Cezanne**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/amd/cores/cezanne) - CPU Family 19h, Model 50h
215 * D-States - [**ACPI Device power
216 states**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Configuration_and_Power_Interface#Device_states)
217 D0-D3 - These are device specific power states, with each higher
218 number requiring less power, and typically taking a longer time to get
219 back to D0, fully running.
220 * D0 - ACPI Device power state: Active - Device fully on and running
221 * D1 - ACPI Device power state: Lower power than D0
222 * D2 - ACPI Device power state: Lower power than D1
223 * D3 Hot - ACPI Device power state: Device is in a low power state, but
225 * D3 Cold - ACPI Device power state: Power is completely removed from
227 * DASH - [**Desktop and mobile Architecture for System Hardware**](Desktop_and_mobile_Architecture_for_System_Hardware)
229 * DC - Electricity: Direct Current
230 * DCP - Digital Content Protection
231 * DCR - **Decode Control Register** This is a way of identifying the
232 hardware in question. This is generally paired with a Vendor ID (VID)
233 * DDC - [**Display Data Channel**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_Data_Channel)
234 * DDI - Intel: Digital Display Interface
235 * DDR - [**Double Data Rate**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_data_rate)
236 * DEVAPC - Mediatek: Device Access Permission Control
237 * DFP - USB: Downstream Facing port
238 * DHCP - [**Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Host_Configuration_Protocol)
239 * DID - Device Identifier
240 * DIMM - [**Dual Inline Memory Module**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIMM)
241 * DIP - [**Dual inline package**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_in-line_package)
242 * DMA - [**Direct Memory
243 Access**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_memory_access) Allows
244 certain hardware subsystems within a computer to access system memory
245 for reading and/or writing independently of the main CPU. Examples of
246 systems that use DMA: Hard Disk Controller, Disk Drive Controller,
247 Graphics Card, Sound Card. DMA is an essential feature of all modern
248 computers, as it allows devices of different speeds to communicate
249 without subjecting the CPU to a massive interrupt load.
250 * DMI - Direct Media Interface is a link/bus between CPU and PCH.
251 * DMI - [**Desktop Management Interface**](Desktop_Management_Interface)
252 * DMIC - Digital Microphone
253 * DMTF - [**Distributed Management Task Force**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_Management_Task_Force)
254 * DMZ - Demilitarized Zone
255 * DNS - [**Domain Name Service**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System)
256 * DNV - Intel: [**Denverton**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/cores/denverton)
257 * DOS - Disk Operating System
259 * DPM - Mediatek: DRAM Power Manager
260 * DPTF - Intel: Dynamic Power and Thermal Framework
261 * DRAM - Memory: [**Dynamic Random Access Memory**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_random-access_memory)
262 * DRTM - Dynamic Root of Trust for Measurement
263 * DQ - Memory: Data I/O signals. On a D-flipflop, used for SRAM, the
264 data-in pin is generally referred to as D, and the data-out pin is Q,
265 thus the IO Data signal lines are referred to as DQ lines.
266 * DQS - Memory: Data Q Strobe - Data valid signal for DDR memory.
267 * DRM - [**Digital Rights
268 Management**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management)
269 * DRP - USB: Port than can be switched between either a Downstream facing (DFP) or
270 an Upstream Facing (UFP).
272 * DRTU - Intel: Diagnostics and Regulatory Testing Utility
273 * DSDT - The [**Differentiated System Descriptor
274 Table**](http://acpi.sourceforge.net/dsdt/index.php), is generated by
275 BIOS and necessary for ACPI. Implementation of ACPI in coreboot needs
276 to be done in a "cleanroom" development process and **MAY NOT BE
277 COPIED** from an existing firmware to avoid legal issues.
278 * DSC - [**Digital Signal Controller**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signal_controller)
279 * DSL - [**Digital subscriber line**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_subscriber_line)
280 * DSP - [**Digital Signal Processor**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signal_processor)
281 * DTB - U-Boot: Device Tree Binary
282 * dTPM - Discrete TPM (Trusted Platform Module) - A separate TPM chip,
283 vs Integrated TPMs or fTPMs (Firmware TPMs).
284 * DTS - U-Boot: Device Tree Source
285 * DVFS - ARM: Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling
286 * DVI - [**Digital Video Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface)
287 * DVT - Production Timeline: Design Validation Test
288 * DW - DesignWare: A portfolio of silicon IP blocks for sale by the
289 Synopsys company. Includes blocks like USB, MIPI, PCIe, HDMI, SATA,
290 I2c, memory controllers and more.
291 * DXE - UEFI: [**Driver Execution Environment**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface#DXE_%E2%80%93_Driver_Execution_Environment_)
292 * DXIO - AMD: Distributed CrossBar I/O
297 * EBDA - Extended BIOS Data Area
298 * ECC - [**Error Correction Code**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_correction_code) - Typically used to refer to a type of
299 memory that can detect and correct memory errors.
300 * EDID - [**Extended Display Identification Data**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Display_Identification_Data)
301 * edk2 - EFI Development Kit 2
302 * EDO - Memory: [**Extended Data
303 Out**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_random-access_memory#Extended_data_out_DRAM)
304 - A DRAM standard introduced in 1994 that improved upon, but was
305 backwards compatible with FPM (Fast Page Mode) memory.
306 * eDP - [**Embedded DisplayPort**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort#eDP)
307 * EDS - Intel: External Design Specification
308 * EEPROM - [**Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EEPROM) (common mistake:
309 electrical erasable programmable ROM).
310 * EFI - [**Extensible Firmware Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface)
311 * EHCI - [**Enhanced Host Controller Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_controller_interface_%28USB%2C_Firewire%29#EHCI) - USB 2.0
312 * EHL - Intel: [**Elkhart Lake**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/cores/elkhart_lake)
313 * EIDE - Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics
314 * EMI - [**ElectroMagnetic
315 Interference**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_interference)
316 * eMMC - [**embedded MultiMedia
317 Card**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MultiMediaCard#eMMC)
320 * EPP - Intel: Energy-Performance Preference
321 * EPROM - Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
322 * ESD - Electrostatic discharge
323 * eSPI - Enhanced System Peripheral Interface
324 * EVT - Production Timeline: Engineering Validation Test
329 * FADT - ACPI Table: Fixed ACPI Description Table
330 * FAE - Field Application Engineer
331 * FAT - File Allocation Table
332 * FCH - AMD: Firmware Control Hub
333 * FCS - Production Timeline: First Customer Shipment
334 * FDD - Floppy Disk Drive
335 * FFS - UEFI: Firmware File System
336 * FIFO - First In, First Out
337 * FIT - Intel: Firmware Interface Table
338 * FIT - Flattened-Image Tree
339 * FIVR - Intel: Fully Integrated Voltage Regulators
340 * Flashing - Flashing means the writing of flash memory. The BIOS on
341 modern mainboards is stored in a NOR flash EEPROM chip.
342 * Flat mode - Real mode running in a way that allows it to access the
343 entire 4GiB of the 32-bit address space. Also known as Unreal mode or
345 * FMAP - coreboot: [**Flash map**](https://doc.coreboot.org/lib/flashmap.html)
346 * FPDT - ACPI: Firmware Performance Data Table
347 * FPGA - [**Field-Programmable Gate Array**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field-programmable_gate_array)
349 [**framebuffer**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framebuffer) is a part
350 of RAM in a computer which is allocated to hold the graphics
351 information for one frame or picture. This information typically
352 consists of color values for every pixel on the screen. A framebuffer
354 * Off-screen, meaning that writes to the framebuffer don't appear on
356 * On-screen, meaning that the framebuffer is directly coupled to the
358 * FPM - Memory: [**Fast Page Mode**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_random-access_memory#Page_mode_DRAM) - A DRAM standard introduced in 1990.
359 * FPU - [**Floating-Point Unit**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating-point_unit)
360 * FSB - [**Front-Side Bus**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front-side_bus)
361 * FSP - Intel: Firmware Support Package
362 * FTP - Network Protocol: [**File Transfer Protocol**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Transfer_Protocol)
363 * fTPM - Firmware TPM (Trusted Platform Module). This is a TPM that is
364 based in firmware instead of actual hardware. It typically runs in
365 some sort of TEE (Trusted Execution Environment).
370 * G0 - ACPI Global Power State: System is running
371 * G0-G3 - ACPI Global Power States
372 * G1 - ACPI Global Power State: System is suspended
373 * G2 - ACPI Global Power State: Soft power-off. The mainboard is off,
374 but can be woken up electronically, by a button, wake-on-lan, a
375 keypress, or some other method.
376 * G3 - ACPI Global Power State: Mechanical Off. There is no power going
377 to the system except for a small battery to keep the CMOS contents,
378 Real Time Clock, and maybe a few other registers running.
379 * GART - AMD: [**Graphics Address Remapping Table**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_address_remapping_table)
380 * GATT - Graphics Aperture Translation Table
381 * GDT - [Global Descriptor Table](https://wiki.osdev.org/Global_Descriptor_Table)
382 * GLK - Intel: [**Gemini Lake**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/cores/gemini_lake)
383 * GMA - Intel: [**Graphics Media
384 Accelerator**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA)
385 * GNB - Graphics NorthBridge
386 * GNVS - Global Non-Volatile Storage
387 * GPD - PCH GPIO in Deep Sleep well (D5 power)
388 * GPI - GPIOs: GPIO Input
389 * GPIO - [**General Purpose Input/Output**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General-purpose_Input/Output) (Pin)
390 * GPMR - Intel: General Purpose Memory Range
391 * GPO - GPIOs: GPIO Output
392 * GPP - AMD: General Purpose (PCI/PCIe) port
393 * GPP - Intel: PCH GPIO in Primary Well (S0 power only)
394 * GPS - Nvidia: GPU Performance Scale
395 * GPT - UEFI: [**GUID Partition Table**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table)
396 * GPU - [**Graphics Processing Unit**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_processing_unit)
397 * GSoC - [**Google Summer of Code**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code)
398 * GSC - Google Security Chip - Typically Cr50/Ti50, though could also refer to the titan chips
399 * GUID - UEFI: [**Globally Unique IDentifier**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universally_unique_identifier)
404 * HDA - [**High Definition Audio**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_High_Definition_Audio)
405 * HDCP - [**High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-bandwidth_Digital_Content_Protection)
406 * HDD - Hard Disk Drive
407 * HDMI - [**High-Definition Multimedia Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI)
408 * HDR - [**High Dynamic Range**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range)
409 * HECI - Intel: [**Host Embedded Controller Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_Embedded_Controller_Interface) (Replaced by MEI)
410 * HID - [**Human Interface
411 Device**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_interface_device)
412 * HOB - UEFI: Hand-Off Block
413 * HPET - [**High Precision Event Timer**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Precision_Event_Timer)
414 * HSTI - Hardware Security Test Interface
415 * HSW - Intel: Haswell
416 * Hybrid S3 - System Power State: This is where the operating system
417 saves the contents of RAM out to the Hard drive, as if preparing to go
418 to S4, but then goes into suspend to RAM. This allows the system to
419 resume quickly from S3 if the system stays powered, and resume from
420 the disk if power is lost.
421 * Hypertransport - AMD: The
422 [**Hypertransport**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertransport) bus
423 is an older (2001-2017) high-speed electrical interconnection protocol
424 specification between CPU, Memory, and (occasionally) peripheral
425 devices. This was originally called the Lightning Data Transport
426 (LDT), which could be seen reflected in various register names.
427 Hypertransport was replaced by AMD's Infinity Fabric (IF) on AMD's Zen
433 * I$ - Instruction Cache
434 * I2C - **Inter-Integrated Circuit** is a bidirectional 2-wire bus for
435 communication generally between different ICs on a circuit board.
436 * [https://www.esacademy.com/en/library/technical-articles-and-documents/miscellaneous/i2c-bus.html](https://www.esacademy.com/en/library/technical-articles-and-documents/miscellaneous/i2c-bus.html)
437 * I2S - [**Inter-IC Sound**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%C2%B2S)
438 * I3C - [**I3c**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I3C_%28bus%29) is not an
439 acronym - The follower to I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit)
440 - Also known as SenseWire
441 * IA - Intel Architecture
442 * IA-64 - Intel Itanium 64-bit architecture
443 * IBB – Initial Boot Block
444 * IBV - Independent BIOS Vendor
445 * IC - Integrated Circuit
446 * ICL - Intel: Ice Lake
447 * IDE - Software: Integrated Development Environment
448 * IDE - Integrated Drive Electronics - A type of hard drive - Used
449 interchangeable with ATA, though IDE describes the drive, and ATA
450 describes the interface. Generally replaced by SATA (Though again,
451 SATA describes the interface, not actually the drive)
452 * IDSEL/AD - Initialization Device SELect/Address and Data. Each PCI
453 slot has a signal called IDSEL. It is used to differentiate between
455 * IDT - [Interrupt Descriptor Table](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrupt_descriptor_table)
456 * IF - AMD: [**Infinity
457 Fabric**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperTransport#Infinity_Fabric)
458 is a superset of AMD's earlier Hypertransport interconnect.
459 * IMC - AMD: Integrated micro-controller - An 8051 microcontroller built
460 into some AMD FCHs (Fusion Controller Hubs) and Southbridge chips.
461 This never worked well for anything beyond fan control and caused
462 numerous issues by reading from the BIOS flash chip, preventing other
463 devices from communicating with the flash chip at runtime.
464 * IMC - Integrated Memory Controller - This is a less usual use of the
465 IMC acronym, but seems to be growing somewhat.
466 * IO or I/O - Input/Output
467 * IoC - Security: Indicator of Compromise
468 * IOC - Intel: I/O Cache
469 * IOE - Intel: I/O Expander
470 * IOM - Intel: I/O Manager
471 * IOMMU - [**I/O Memory Management Unit**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input%E2%80%93output_memory_management_unit)
472 * IOMUX - AMD: The I/O Mux block controls how each GPIO is configured.
473 * IOSF - Intel: Intel On-chip System Fabric
474 * IP - Intellectual Property
475 * IP - Internet Protocol
476 * IPC - Inter-Processor Communication/Inter-Process Communication
477 * IPI - Inter Processor Interrupt
478 * IPMI - Intelligent Platform Management Interface
479 * IRQ - Interrupt Request
480 * ISA - Instruction set architecture
481 * ISA (bus) - Industry standard architecture - Replaced generally by PCI
482 (Peripheral Control Interface)
483 * ISDN - Integrated Services Digital Network
484 * ISH - AMD PSP: Image Slot Header
485 * ISH - Intel: Integrated Sensor Hub - A microcontroller built into the
486 processor to help offload data processing from various sensors on a
488 * ISP - Internet Service Provider
489 * IVHD - ACPI: I/O Virtualization Hardware Definition
490 * IVMD - ACPI: I/O Virtualization Memory Definition
491 * IVRS - I/O Virtualization Reporting Structure
496 * JEDEC - Joint Electron Device Engineering Council
497 * JSL - Intel: Jasper Lake
498 * JTAG - The [**Joint Test Action
499 Group**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JTAG) created a standard for
500 communicating between chips to verify and test ICs and PCB designs.
501 The standard was named after the group, and has become a standard
502 method of accessing special debug functions on a chip allowing for
503 hardware-level debug of both the hardware and software.
508 * KBL - Intel: Kaby Lake
509 * KVM - Keyboard Video Mouse
513 * L0s - ASPM Power State: Turn off power for one direction of the PCIe
515 * L1-Cache - The fastest but smallest memory cache on a processor.
516 Frequently split into Instruction and Data caches (I-Cache / D-Cache,
517 also occasionally abbreviated as i$ and d$)
518 * L1 - ASPM Power State: The L1 power state shuts the PCIe link off
519 completely until triggered to resume by the CLKREQ# signal.
520 * L2-Cache - The second level of memory cache on a processor, this is a
521 larger cache than L1, but takes longer to access. Typically checked
522 only after data has not been found in the L1-cache.
523 * L3-Cache - The Third, and typically final memory cache level on a
524 processor. The L3 cache is typically quite a bit larger than the L1 &
525 L2 caches, but again takes longer to access, though it's still much
526 faster than reading memory. The L3 cache is frequently shared between
527 multiple cores on a modern CPU.
528 * LAN - Local Area Network
530 * LBA - Logical Block Address
531 * LCD - Liquid Crystal Display
532 * LCAP - PCIe:Link Capabilities
533 * LED - Light Emitting Diode
534 * LF - Line Feed - The standard Unix EOL (End-of-Line) marker.
535 * LGTM - Looks Good To Me
536 * LLC - Last Level Cache
537 * LLVM - Initially stood for Low Level Virtual Machine, but now is just
538 the name of the project, as it has expanded past its original goal.
540 * LPDDR5 - [**Low-Power DDR 5 SDRAM**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LPDDR)
541 * LPC - The [**Low Pin
542 count**](http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/industry/lpc.htm) bus
543 was a replacement for the ISA bus, created by serializing a number of
544 parallel signals to get rid of those connections.
545 * LPT - Line Print Terminal, Local Print Terminal, or Line Printer. -
547 * LRU - Least Recently Used - a rule used in operating systems that
548 utilises a paging system. LRU selects a page to be paged out if it has
549 been used less recently than any other page. This may be applied to a
550 cache system as well.
551 * LSB - Least Significant Bit
552 * LTE - Telecommunication: [**Long-Term
553 Evolution**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_%28telecommunication%29)
554 * LVDS - Low-Voltage Differential Signaling
559 * M.2 - An interface specification for small peripheral cards.
560 * MAC Address - Media Access Control Address
561 * MBR - Master Boot Record
562 * MCA - [**Machine Check Architecture**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_Check_Architecture)
563 * MCR - Machine Check Registers
564 * MCU - Memory Control Unit
565 * MCU - [**MicroController
566 Unit**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcontroller)
567 * MCTP - [**Management Component Transport Protocol**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_Component_Transport_Protocol)
568 * MDFIO - Intel: Multi-Die Fabric IO
569 * MDN - AMD: Mendocino
570 * ME - Intel: Management Engine
571 * MEI - Intel: ME Interface (Previously known as HECI)
572 * Memory training - the process of finding the best speeds, voltages,
573 and delays for system memory.
574 * MHU: ARM: Message Handling Unit
575 * MIPI: The [**Mobile Industry Processor
576 Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIPI_Alliance) Alliance has
577 developed a number of different specifications for mobile devices.
578 The Camera Serial Interface (CSI) is a widely used interface that has
579 made its way into laptops.
580 * MIPS - Millions of Instructions per Second
581 * MIPS (processor) - Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipelined
583 * MKBP - Matrix Keyboard Protocol
584 * MMC - [**MultiMedia
585 Card**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MultiMediaCard)
586 * MMIO - [**Memory Mapped I/O**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMIO)
587 allows peripherals' memory or registers to be accessed directly
588 through the memory bus. When the memory bus size was very small, this
589 was initially done by hiding any memory at that address, effectively
590 wasting that memory. In modern systems, that memory is typically
591 moved to the end of the physical memory space, freeing a 'hole' to map
593 * MMU - Memory Management Unit
594 * MMX - Officially, not an acronym, trademarked by Intel. Unofficially,
595 Matrix Math eXtension.
596 * MODEM - Modulator-Demodulator
597 * Modern Standby - Microsoft's name for the S0iX states
598 * MOP - Macro-Operation
599 * MOS - Metal-Oxide-Silicon
600 * MP - Production Timeline: Mass Production
601 * MPU - Memory Protection Unit
602 * MPTable - The Intel [**MultiProcessor
603 specification**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MultiProcessor_Specification)
604 is a hardware compatibility guide for machine hardware designers and
605 OS software writers to produce SMP-capable machines and OSes in a
606 vendor-independent manner. Version 1.1 of the spec was released in
607 1994, and the 1.4 version was released in 1995. This has been
608 generally superseded by the ACPI tables.
609 * MRC - Intel: Memory Reference Code
610 * MSB - Most Significant Bit
611 * MSI - Message Signaled Interrupt
612 * MSR - Machine-Specific Register
613 * MT/s - MegaTransfers per second
614 * MTL - Intel: Meteor Lake
615 * MTL - ARM: MHU Transport Layer
616 * MTRR - [**Memory Type and Range Register**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTRR)
617 allows to set the cache behaviour on memory access in x86. Basically,
618 it tells the CPU how to cache certain ranges of memory
619 (e.g. write-through, write-combining, write-back...). Memory ranges
620 are specified over physical address ranges. In Linux, they are visible
621 over `/proc/mtrr` and they can be modified there. For further
622 information, see the [**Linux documentation**](https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v5.19/x86/pat.html).
627 * Nack - Negative Acknowledgement
628 * NBCI - Nvidia: NoteBook Common Interface
629 * NC - GPIOs: No Connect
630 * NDA - Non-Disclosure Agreement.
631 * NF - GPIOs: Native Function - GPIOs frequently have multiple different
632 functions, one of which is defined as the default, or Native function.
633 * NFC - [**Near Field
634 Communication**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-field_communication)
635 * NGFF - [**Next Generation Form
636 Factor**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.2) - The original name for
638 * NHLT - ACPI Table - Non-HDA Link Table
639 * NIC - Network Interface Card
640 * NMI - Non-maskable interrupt
641 * Nonce - Cryptography: [**Number used once**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographic_nonce)
643 * NTFS - New Technology File System
644 * NVME - Non-Volatile Memory Express - An SSD interface that allows
645 access to the flash memory through a PCIe bus.
646 * NVPCF - Nvidia Platform and Control Framework
652 * ODH - GPIOs: Open Drain High - High is driven to the reference voltage, low is a high-impedance state
653 * ODL - GPIOs: Open Drain Low - Low is driven to ground, High is a high-impedance state.
654 * ODM - [**Original Design Manufacturer**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_design_manufacturer)
655 * OEM - [**Original Equipment Manufacturer**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_equipment_manufacturer)
656 * OHCI - [**Open Host Controller
657 Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_Controller_Interface_%28USB%29)
658 - non-proprietary USB Host controller for USB 1.1 (May also refer to
659 the open host controller for IEEE 1394, but this is less common).
660 * OOBE - Out Of the Box Experience
661 * OPP - ARM: Operating Performance Points
662 * OS - Operating System
664 * OTP - One Time Programmable
669 * PAE - physical address extension
670 * PAL - Programmable Array Logic
671 * PAM - Intel: Programmable Attribute Map - This is the legacy BIOS
672 region from 0xC_0000 to 0xF_FFFF
673 * PAT - [**Page Attribute
674 Table**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_attribute_table) This can
675 be used independently or in combination with MTRR to setup memory type
676 access ranges. Allows more finely-grained control than MTRR. Compared to MTRR,
677 which sets memory types by physical address ranges, PAT sets them at Page
679 * PAT - Intel: [**Performance Acceleration
680 Technology**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_acceleration_technology)
681 * PATA - Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment - A renaming of ATA
682 after SATA became the standard.
683 * PAVP - [**Intel: Protected Audio-Video
684 Path**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA#Protected_Audio_Video_Path)
685 * PC - Personal Computer
686 * PC AT - Personal Computer Advanced Technology
687 * PC100 - An SDRAM specification for a 100MHz memory bus.
688 * PCB - Printed Circuit Board
689 * PCD - UEFI: Platform Configuration Database
690 * PCH - Intel: [**Platform Controller Hub**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_Controller_Hub)
691 * PCI - [**Peripheral Control
692 Interconnect**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripheral_Component_Interconnect)
693 - Replaced generally by PCIe (PCI Express)
694 * PCI Configuration Space - The [**PCI Config
695 space**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Configuration_Space) is an
696 [address space](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Address_space) for all
697 PCI devices. Originally, this address space was accessed through an
698 index/data pair by writing the address that you wanted to read/write
699 into the I/O address 0xCF8, then reading or writing I/O Address 0xCFC.
700 This has been updated to an MMIO method which increases each PCI
701 function's configuration space from 256 bytes to 4K.
702 * PCIe - [**PCI Express**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pci_express)
703 * PCMCIA: Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
704 * PCO - AMD: [**Picasso**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/amd/cores/picasso)
705 * PCR: TPM: Platform Configuration Register
706 * PD - GPIOs: Pull-Down - Setting the pin high drives it to the reference voltage. Setting it low drives it to ground through a resistor.
707 * PD - Power Delivery - This is a specification for communicating power
708 needs and availability between two devices, typically over USB type C.
709 * PEG - PCIe Graphics - A (typically) x16 PCIe slot connected to the CPU
710 for higher graphics bandwidth and lower latency.
711 * PEI - UEFI: Pre-EFI Initialization
712 * PEIM - UEFI: PEI Module
713 * PEP - Intel: Power Engine Plug-in
714 * PHY - [**PHYsical layer**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHY) - The
715 hardware that implements the send/receive functionality of a
716 communication protocol.
717 * PI - Platform Initialization
718 * PIC - [**Programmable Interrupt
719 Controller**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_interrupt_controller)
720 * PII - [**Personally Identifiable
721 Information**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_data)
722 * PIO - [**Programmed
723 I/O**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmed_input%E2%80%93output)
724 * PIR - PCI Interrupt Router
725 * PIR Table - The [**PCI Interrupt Routing
726 Table**](https://web.archive.org/web/20080206072638/http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/pciirq.mspx)
727 was a Microsoft specification that allowed windows to determine how
728 each PCI slot was wired to the interrupt router.
730 * PIT - Generally refers to the 8253/8254 [**Programmable Interval
731 Timer**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_interval_timer).
732 * PLCC - [**Plastic leaded chip
733 carrier**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_leaded_chip_carrier)
734 * PLL - [**Phase-Locked
735 Loop**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-locked_loop)
736 * PM - Platform Management
737 * PM - Power Management
738 * PMC Intel: Power Management Controller
739 * PMIC - Power Management IC (Pronounced "P-mick")
740 * PMIO - Port-Mapped I/O
741 * PMU - Power Management Unit
742 * PNP - Plug aNd Play
743 * PoP - Point-of-Presence
744 * POR - Plan of Record
745 * POR - Power On Reset
746 * Port80 - The [**I/O port
747 0x80**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-on_self-test#Progress_and_error_reporting)
748 is the address for BIOS writes to update diagnostic information during
750 * POST - [**Power-On Self
751 Test**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-on_self-test)
752 * POTS - [**Plain Old Telephone
753 Service**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_old_telephone_service)
754 * PPI - UEFI: PEIM-to-PEIM Interface
755 * PPR: Processor Programming Reference
756 * PPT - AMD: Package Power Tracking
757 * PROM: Programmable Read Only Memory
758 * Proto - Production Timeline: The first initial production to test key
760 * PSE - Page Size Extention
761 * PSP - AMD: Platform Security Processor
762 * PSPP - AMD: PCIE Speed Power Policy
763 * PU - GPIOs: Pull-Up - Setting the pin low drives it to ground. Setting it high drives it to the reference voltage through a resistor.
764 * PVT - Production Timeline: (Production Validation Test
765 * PWM - Pulse Width Modulation
766 * PXE - Pre-boot Execution Environment
771 * QOS - Quality of Service
776 * RAID - redundant array of inexpensive disks - as opposed to SLED -
777 single large expensive disk.
778 * RAM - Random Access Memory
779 * RAMID - Boards that have soldered-down memory (no DIMMs) can have
780 various different sizes, speeds, and brands of memory chips attached.
781 Because there is no SPD, (for cost savings) the memory needs to be
782 identified in a different manner. The simplest of these is done using
783 a set of 3 or 4 GPIOs to allow 8 to 16 different memory chips to be
785 * RAPL - Running Average Power Limit
786 * RCS - [**Revision control
787 system**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revision_Control_System)
788 * Real mode - The original 20-bit addressing mode of the 8086 & 8088
789 computers, allowing the system to access 1MiB of memory through a
790 Segment:Offset index pair. In 2022, this is still the mode that
791 x86-64 processors are in at the reset vector!
792 * RDMA - [**Remote Direct Memory
793 Access**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_Direct_Memory_Access) is
794 a concept whereby two or more computers communicate via DMA directly
795 from main memory of one system to the main memory of another.
796 * RFC - Request for Comment
797 * RFI - [**Radio-Frequency
798 Interference**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_interference)
799 * RGB - Red, Green, Blue
800 * RISC - Reduced Instruction Set Computer
801 * RMA - Return Merchandise Authorization
803 * ROM - Read Only Memory
804 * RoT - Root of Trust
805 * RPL - Intel: [**Raptor Lake**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raptor_Lake)
806 * RRG - AMD (ATI): Register Reference Guide
807 * RSDP - Root System Description Pointer
808 * RTC - Real Time Clock
809 * RTFM - Read the Fucking Manual
810 * RTOS - Real-Time Operating System
811 * RVP - Intel: Reference Validation Platform
818 * S-states - ACPI System Power States: [**Sleep states**](https://uefi.org/specs/ACPI/6.4/16_Waking_and_Sleeping/sleeping-states.html)
819 * S0 - ACPI System Power State: Fully running
820 * S0 - S5 - ACPI System power states level 0 - 5, with each higher
821 numbered power state being (theoretically) lower power than the
822 previous, and (again theoretically) taking longer to get back to a
823 fully running system than the previous.
824 * S1 - ACPI System Power State: Standby - This isn’t use much anymore,
825 but it used to put the Processor into a powered, but idle state, power
826 down any drives, and turn off the display. This would wake up almost
827 instantly because no processor context was lost in this state.
828 * S2 - ACPI System Power State: Lower power than S1, Higher power than
829 S3, I don’t know that this state was ever well defined by any group.
830 * S3 - ACPI System Power State: Suspend to RAM - A low-power state where
831 the processor context is copied to the system Memory, then the
832 processor and all peripherals are powered off. On wake, or resume,
833 the system starts to boot normally, then switches to restore the
834 memory registers to the previous settings, restore the processor
835 context from memory, and jump back to the operating system to pick up
837 * S4 - ACPI System Power State: Suspend to Disk. The processor context
838 and all the contents of memory are copied to the hard drive. This is
839 typically fully handled by the operating system, so resume is a normal
840 boot through all of the firmware, then the OS restore the original
841 contents of memory. Any critical processor state is restored.
842 * S5 - ACPI System Power State: System is “completely powered off”, but
843 still has power going to the board.
844 * SAR - The [**Specific Absorption
845 Rate**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_absorption_rate) is the
846 measurement for the amount of Radio Frequency (RF) energy absorbed by
847 the body in units of Watts per Kilogram. This may be built into
849 * SAS - Serial Attached SCSI - A serialized version of SCSI used mostly
850 for high performance hard drives and tape drives.
851 * SATA - Serial Advanced Technology Attachment
853 * SB-RMI - AMD: Sideband Remote Management Interface
854 * SB-TSI - SideBand Temperature Sensor Interface
855 * SBA - SideBand Addressing
856 * SBI - SideBand Interface
857 * SBOM - Software Bill of Materials
858 * SCI - System Control Interrupt
859 * SCP - ARM: System Control Processor
860 * SCP - Network Protocol: Secure Copy
861 * SCSI - Small Computer System Interface - A high-bandwidth
862 communication interface for peripherals. This is a very old interface
863 that has seen numerous updates and is still used today, primarily in
864 SAS (Serial Attached SCSI). The initial version is now often referred
866 * SD - [**Secure Digital**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SD_card) card
867 * SDRAM - Synchronous DRAM
868 * SDLE: AMD: Stardust Dynamic Load Emulator
869 * SEEP - Serial EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only
871 * SEV - AMD: Secure Encrypted Virtualization
873 * Shadow RAM - RAM which content is copied from ROM residing at the same
874 address for speedup purposes.
875 * Shim - A small piece of code whose only purpose is to act as an
876 interface to load another piece of code.
877 * SIMD - Single Instruction, Multiple Data
878 * SIMM - Single Inline Memory Module
879 * SIPI - Startup Inter Processor Interrupt
880 * SIO - [**Super I/O**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_I/O)
881 * SKL - Intel: SkyLake
882 * SKU - Stock Keeping Unit
883 * SMART: [**Self-Monitoring Analysis And Reporting
884 Technology**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.)
885 * SMBIOS - [**System Management
886 BIOS**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Management_BIOS)
887 * SMBus - [**System Management
888 Bus**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Management_Bus)
889 * [http://www.smbus.org/](http://www.smbus.org/)
890 * SMI - System management interrupt
891 * SMM - [**System management
892 mode**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Management_Mode)
893 * SMN - AMD: System Management Network
894 * SMRAM - System Management RAM
895 * SMT - Simultaneous Multithreading
896 * SMT - Surface Mount
897 * SMT - Symmetric Multithreading
898 * SNP - AMD: Secure Nested Paging
899 * SMU - AMD: System Management Unit
900 * SO-DIMM: Small Outline Dual In-Line Memory Module
901 * SoC - System on a Chip
902 * SOIC - [**Small-Outline Integrated
903 Circuit**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small-outline_integrated_circuit)
904 * SPD - [**Serial Presence
905 Detect**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_presence_detect)
906 * SPI - [**Serial Peripheral
907 Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Peripheral_Interface)
908 * SPL - AMD: Security Patch Level
909 * SPM - Mediatek: System Power Manager
910 * SPMI - MIPI: System Power Management Interface
911 * SRAM - Static Random Access Memory
912 * SSD - Solid State Drive
913 * SSDT - Secondary System Descriptor Table - ACPI table
914 * SSE - Streaming SIMD Extensions
915 * SSH - Network Protocol: Secure Shell
916 * SSI - **Server System Infrastructure**
917 * SSI-CEB - Physical board format: [**SSI Compact Electronics
918 Bay**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSI_CEB)
919 * SSI-EEB - Physical board format: [**SSI Enterprise Electronics
920 Bay**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSI_CEB) is a wider version of
921 ATX with different standoff placement.
922 * SSI-MEB - Physical board format: [**SSI Midrange Electronics
923 Bay**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSI_CEB)
924 * SSI-TEB - Physical board format: [**SSI Thin Electronics
925 Bay**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSI_CEB)
926 * SSP - [**Speech Signal Processor**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_processing)
927 * STAPM - AMD: Skin Temperature Aware Power Management
928 * STB - AMD: Smart Trace Buffer
929 * SuperIO - The [**Super I/O**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_I/O)
930 (SIO) device provides a system with any of a number of different
931 peripherals. Most common are: A PS/2 Keyboard and mouse port, LPT
932 Ports, UARTS, Watchdog Timers, Floppy drive Controllers, GPIOs, or any
933 of a number of various other devices.
934 * SVI2/3 - Serial VID (Voltage Identification) Interface 2.0 / 3.0
940 * TBT - Intel: Turbo Boost Technology
941 * TCC - Intel: Thermal Control Circuit
942 * TCP - Transmission Control Protocol
943 * TCPC - Type C Port Controller
944 * TCSS - Intel: Type C SubSystem
945 * TDMA - Time-Division Multiple Access
946 * TDP - [**Thermal Design
947 Power**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_design_power)
948 * TEE - [**Trusted Execution
949 Environment**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_execution_environment)
950 * TFTP - Network Protocol: Trivial File Transfer Protocol
951 * TGL - Intel: Tigerlake
952 * THC - Touch Host Controller
953 * Ti50 - Google: The next generation GSC (Google Security chip) on
954 ChromeOS devices after Cr50
955 * TLA - Techtronics Logic Analyzer
956 * TLA - Three Letter Acronym
957 * TLB - [**Translation Lookside
958 Buffer**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation_lookaside_buffer)
959 * TME - Intel: Total Memory Encryption
960 * TOCTOU - Time-Of-Check to Time-Of-Use
961 * TOLUM - Top of Low Usable Memory
962 * ToM - Top of Memory
963 * TPM - Trusted Platform Module
965 * TSC - [**Time Stamp
966 Counter**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Stamp_Counter)
967 * TSEG - TOM (Top of Memory) Segment
968 * TSR - Temperature Sensor
969 * TWAIN - Technology without an interesting name.
971 * TXE - Intel: Trusted eXecution Engine
976 * UART - Universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter
977 * UC - UnCacheable. Memory type setting in MTRR/PAT.
978 * uCode - [**Microcode**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcode)
979 * UDK - UEFI: UEFI Development Kit
980 * UDP - User Datagram Protocol
981 * UEFI - Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
982 * UFP - USB: Upstream Facing Port
983 * UFS - Universal Flash storage
984 * UHCI - USB: [**Universal Host Controller
985 Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_controller_interface_%28USB%2C_Firewire%29%23UHCI)
986 - Intel proprietary USB 1.x Host controller
987 * Unreal mode - Real mode running in a way that allows it to access the
988 entire 4GiB of the 32-bit address space - Also known as Big real mode
990 * UMA - Unified Memory Architecture
991 * UMI - AMD: [**Unified Media
992 Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Media_Interface)
993 * UPD - Updatable Product Data
994 * UPS - Uninterruptible Power Supply
995 * USART - Universal Synchronous/Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter
996 * USB - Universal Serial Bus
1001 * VBIOS - Video BIOS
1002 * VBNV - Vboot Non-Volatile storage
1003 * VBT - [**Video BIOS
1004 Table**](https://01.org/linuxgraphics/gfx-docs/drm/ch04s02.html#id-1.4.3.4.16)
1005 * VESA - Video Electronics Standards Association
1006 * VGA: Video Graphics Array
1007 * VID: Vendor Identifier
1008 * VID: AMD: Voltage Identifier
1009 * VLB - VESA Local Bus
1010 * VOIP - Voice over IP
1011 * Voodoo mode - a silly name for Big Real mode.
1012 * VPD - Vital Product Data
1013 * VPN - Virtual Private Network
1014 * VR - Voltage Regulator
1015 * VRAM - Video Random Access Memory
1016 * VRM - Voltage Regulator Module
1017 * VT-d - Intel: Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O
1022 * WAN - [**Wide Area Network**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_area_network)
1023 * WB - Cache Policy: [**Write-Back**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache_%28computing%29)
1024 * WC - Cache Policy: [**Write-Combining**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache_%28computing%29)
1025 * WCAM - World-facing Camera - A camera on a device that is not intended
1026 to be used as a webcam, but instead to film scenes away from the user.
1027 For clamshell devices, his may be on the keyboard panel for devices
1028 devices that open 360 degrees, or on the outside of the cover. For
1029 tablets, it's on the the side away from the screen.
1030 * WDT - [**WatchDog Timer**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchdog_timer)
1031 * WLAN - Wireless LAN (Local Area Network)
1032 * WWAN - Telecommunication: Wireless WAN (Wide Area Network)
1033 * WP - Cache policy: [**Write-Protected**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache_%28computing%29)
1035 * WOL - [**Wake-on-LAN**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake-on-LAN)
1036 * WT - Cache Policy: [**Write Through**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache_%28computing%29)
1041 * x64 - Another name for [**x86-64**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64) or AMD64.
1042 * x86 - [**x86**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86) Originally referred to any device compatible with the 8088/8086
1043 architectures, this now typically means compatibility with the 80386
1044 32-bit instruction set (also referred to as IA-32)
1045 * x86-64 - The 64-bit extension to the x86 architecture. Also known as
1046 [**AMD64**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64) as it was developed by AMD. Long-mode refers to when the
1047 processor is running in the 64-bit mode.
1048 * XBAR - AMD: Abbreviation for crossbar, their command packet switch
1049 which determines what data goes where within the processor or SoC
1050 * XHCI - USB: [**Extensible Host Controller Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Host_Controller_Interface) - USB Host controller
1051 supporting 1.x, 2.0, and 3.x devices.
1060 * ZIF - Zero Insertion Force
1064 * [AMD Glossary of terms](https://www.amd.com/system/files/documents/glossary-of-terms-20220505-for-web.pdf)