P

Pentium� processor
A microprocessor introduced by Intel Corporation in March 1993 as the successor to the i486. Although it was code-named the P5 by Intel and called 586 and 80586 by computer industry media and analysts prior to its release, Intel named the product Pentium for copyright and trademark reasons.

personal computer
A computer designed for use by one person at a time. Personal computers do not need to share the processing, disk, and printer resources of another computer (although they can at the user's option).

Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA)
PCMCIA is a Memory Card Standard for high volume removable storage cards for portable PCs. The cards are about the size of a business card but somewhat thicker. There are various types of cards from solid state low volume to micro-disk high volume. The PCMCIA interface is also used for modem and Comms cards.

pincushion
An inward bowing of the video image.

pipelined burst cache
Faster performers than asychronous cache, this technology reduces the clock cycles necessary to refresh the memory—increasing performance up to 20%.

pipelining
A method of fetching and decoding instructions (preprocessing) in which, at any given time, several program instructions are in various stages of being fetched or decoded. Ideally, pipelining speeds execution time by ensuring that the microprocessor does not have to wait for instructions; when it completes execution of one instruction, the next is ready and waiting. In parallel processing, can also refer to a method in which instructions are passed from one processing unit to another, as on an assembly line, and each unit is specialized for performing a particular level of operation.

pixel
The smallest element on a screen that can be controlled by a computer in terms of light intensity and color. The higher the number of pixels, the better the quality of the image displayed on the screen.

plain-paper fax
A facsimile machine that uses ordinary 8 1/2" X 11" paper instead of fax paper.

plug and play
A system, device or piece of software that can be installed and immediately used.

PLUS PACK
Software add-on with Windows 95 that provides desktop themes and hard drive utilities.

pointing device
A device used to control the pointer on the screen.

Portable Document Format (PDF)
A file format for Adobe's Acrobat document tool. PDF files can contain combinations of text, color graphics and images, and can run to thousands of pages.

POSIX
A set of interfaces and standardized services for the UNIX operating system.

power save mode
A feature which reduces the activity of a PC if no external input is received for a time. This helps conserve the power of the battery.

PPM (pages per minute)
With printers, particularly laser printers, a rating of output capacity—literally, the number of printed pages the printer can produce in one minute. A printer�s PPM rating, which is provided by the manufacturer, is usually based on a "normal" page (a page having a single, usually built-in, typeface that contains no graphics or other special elements).

primary colors
In light (and in monitors, which produce light) they are the basic colors-red, green and blue-that can be added together to create any other color.

print buffer
A section of memory to which print output can be sent for temporary storage until the printer is ready to handle it; can exist in the printer, in a separate unit between the computer and printer or on disk. Regardless of location, the function of a print buffer is to free the computer for other tasks by taking print output at high speed from the computer and passing it along at the much slower rate required by the printer.

print queue
A number of print files awaiting time on a printer working on a first in, first print basis; sometimes also prioritizes files higher up a queue.

print server
A server that manages printers and print requests from other nodes on the network.

printer
A device attached to a computer that produces images and/or text. There are two kinds of printers: parallel and serial. A parallel printer receives information one character at a time through eight wires. A serial printer receives information one bit at a time through a single wire. One or more additional wires may be required to exchange control signals.

protocol
A set of rules to which a specific data communications function must adhere.

PS/2
IBM's PC architecture using MCA, intended to supersede their AT. It is not an industry standard.

purity
The ability of the electron beam to hit precisely the correct phosphor COLOR dot. If a full red page is shown on the display, impurity would result in a purple or greenish color region. This impurity can occur if the shadow mask has been damaged or if the screen has become magnetized. Degaussing the screen may fix the problem.