Computer/Technical Jargon

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P2P: See Peer-to-Peer.

Parallel: Data that is transferred by multiple wires instead of just one, which is serial. In general, parallel is slower than serial. How can that be, since parallel is using 8, 16, 32, or more wires instead of one to send the same data? Because with parallel communication, you have to make sure your data is synchronized. If one wire is slow by 1/1000th of a second, your data will come out wrong. With serial, you don't have to worry about timings along multiple wires, just one. Therefore, since timing of the data is so much easier with serial, it can be much faster.

PATA: Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment. This is the interface that used to be called ATA before the invention of SATA. Often erronously called IDE. PATA was always more popular than SCSI because it was cheaper and easier to hook-up, even though PATA drives were much slower than SCSI. On a PATA cable, there are generally two connections for two devices. In order for the computer to know which drive it is communicating with, the drives have to be given identifications. One drive on the cable is called master and the other slave. However, this is just an identification as neither drive controls the other. SCSI uses numbers for indentification and SATA only allow one device per cable. It is important to know that the commands that SATA drives use and support all of the commands that PATA devices use. Thus, the only differences between a SATA and a PATA drive are the cable and speed. This means that with a connector that converts a serial transmission to or from a parallel transmission is really all that is needed to make older drives compatible with the newer interface. See parallel for the reason why SATA interfaces are faster.

Peer-to-Peer: A way of sharing files with others. Programs set up the interface. When someone searches for a file, the program searches other people's computers running that program. Only folders that you allow to be searched will be searched, so you can keep sections of your computer private. It is important to note that peer-to-peer is not against the law. However, sharing copyrighted work without the copyright owner's permission is against the law. This means that most music, especially music available commercially, is illegal to share. The same is true with movies, computer programs, or anything at all with a copyright. Some artists in the past have used peer-to-peer networks to get famous. As long as the music wasn't copyrighted, it was legal. Peer-to-peer became famous because of the old Napster. New peer-to-peer software was de-centralized, meaning basically you could not sue the authors of the software and could only sue the people who illegally share. Popular peer-to-peer software includes BitTorrent, Limewire, and Gnutella. Keep in mind that peer-to-peer networks is how a lot of malware spreads. You cannot get a virus or malware just by using a peer-to-peer program. Just remember, peer-to-peer has many legit uses and in itself is legal.

Pentium: The former name of Intel's flagship line of CPU's. The name from the greek word for five, penta, because this was a 5th generation CPU. The Pentium started identifying CPU's by name instead of model number. This was done to distinguish between Intel's CPU's and clones. The name replacing Pentium is Core.

Phenom: The current name of AMD's flagship line of CPU's. It replaced the Athlon name in December 2007, although Athlon variants were produced for sometime after that.

Pixel: A dot of some color. The greater the pixel density, the greater the image quality.

PCI: Peripheral Component Interface. The most common slot in computers. PCI replaced the ISA slot. Usually the slot is white; however, some upper-end motherboard makers use a different color. This is because some computers let you see on the inside, and this allows the owner to show off their PC, sometimes with neon or black lights. PCI slots are fully plug and play. PCI slots run at 33 or 66 MHz.

PCI Express: Be careful not to confuse this with PCI-X. PCI Express is an extension of PCI. PCI Express replaced AGP as the slot of choice for video cards. In fact, right now only video related cards use PCI Express. However, PCI Express is not limited to video cards. PCI Express slots are different lengths which are denoted x1, x2, x4, x8, x16, and x32. An x1 will work in an x32, but not the other way around because x32 cards are too big for x1 slots. Think of the different lengths like a highway. The more lanes you have, the more cars can travel on the highway. And the same is true with the PCI Express slots, the longer (more lanes) the slot, the more data can travel. PCI cards will not fit in PCI Express slots nor will PCI Express cards fit into PCI slots.

PCI-X: Be careful not to confuse this with PCI Express. PCI-X the next generation of PCI and works and looks exactly the same. The difference between PCI and PCI-X is speed. PCI-X runs at 266 or 533 MHz. PCI cards will work in PCI-X slots, but not the other way around because PCI-X cards are longer.

PIO: Programmed Input/Output. For ATA drives, this was the first data transfer standard. Unlike the future DMA modes, PIO mode required the CPU to oversee all data transfer between the drive and memory. This makes PIO a huge bottleneck in overall performance. Windows 98 and earlier used this method by default, even if your computer supported the fast DMA method. So, for users of these versions of Windows, you need to change the settings on both your hard drive and CD drives to uses DMA mode, otherwise your whole computer will be slow.

Plug 'n Play: Like the name suggests, this is the technology to autoconfigure everything. In the old days, you had to manually choose your IRQ lines, DMA channel, and IO addresses. This required that you knew what was available on your computer. Plug 'n Play eliminated all this work. Unfortunately, in the beginning, this was mockingly called "Plug n' Pray" because sometimes you ended having to set the settings manually anyway. Today, however, this is no longer an issue. You just put in an expansion card and the BIOS and/or Operating System does the rest. You still have to load software drivers.

POP: Post-Office Protocal. A common standard for receiving e-mail.

Port: An adapter that accepts a particular connection. Ports and adapters have male and female ends and male and female pins. For example, a wall outlet has a female end with female pins, but a plug has a male end with male pins. The old parallel printer port on a computer has a male end with female pins, and the cable is a female end with male pins. The female parts of devices are always recessed so that they can accept, whereas the male parts of devices are not recessed so that they can plug into the female ends.

POST: Power On Self-Test. Programs the BIOS uses to test your hardware. If no errors are found, the computer will beep through the system speaker. If a problem is found, the computer will give a series of beep codes or display an error message on screen which is dependent on the BIOS manufacturer. If the computer doesn't do any of this, then it failed to POST which means something is causing the BIOS to not work at all or the BIOS doesn't have a beep code for the problem. You can buy cards that display all the POST codes for diagnostics.

POWER: Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC. A machine code designed by IBM. It was used to make the PowerPC CPU used on all but the most recent Macs and the Cell CPU that is being used in the Playstation 3. The XBox360 uses a PowerPC CPU, thus it too is an extenstion of the POWER machine code. The Nintendo GameCube and Wii uses a modified PowerPC CPU. The POWER line of CPU's is used on specilized applications, not the average PC.

PowerPC: A CPU derived from IBM's POWER machine code. It was jointly designed by Apple, IBM, and Motorola in alliance called AIM. However, the Apple and IBM relationship soured in 2005 and Apple choose to use Intel's CPU's in their newest computers. Officially, Apple stated the PowerPC they did not like future performance of the PowerPC. Unofficially, the real reason the relationship soured was because IBM could not meet demand as their manufacturing was now being used for Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft latest video game consoles. Microsoft's XBox360 uses a triple-core PowerPC, called the IBM Xenon. Nintendo's Wii uses a PowerPC which has been rumored to be similar or the same as the one used on the XBox360. And Sony allied with IBM and Toshiba to form the Cell CPU for the Playstation 3.

Power Supply: The device on the computer that turns AC power into DC. These things store a huge amount of charge, so when it breaks, it must be recycled or thrown away. Trying to open one could kill you. Power supplies have a wattage rating which determines how many and what kinds of devices you may add-on. Adding too many devices will overload the power supply causing major instability. More expensive power supplies provide cleaner power, resulting in more stability and longer component life. When a power supply is failing, it is rarely graceful. Usually, a bunch of bad things happen, like random lockups and data being corrupted on your hard drive. Power supplies have a fan on them to keep your computer cool. If the fan on a power supply goes bad or is blocked, your whole computer could overheat and be destroyed. You'll know when your power supply is dying when a bunch of weird things start to happen for no good reason.

P-rating: Performance Rating. Since many people erronously believed faster CPU's are always better (partly because Intel until mid 2004 said as much), several companies started using a P-rating. The P-rating is supposed to correspond to the Intel chip of that speed. For instance, the AMD Athlon64 3200+ running a 2000 MHz is supposed to perform the same as an Intel CPU at 3200 MHz. This whole system is confusing, and even more confusing now that even Intel doesn't label CPU's by speed. And worse, the numbers can be reused. The AMD Athlon64 3800+ isn't as good as the Athlon64 X2 3800+. The only purpose of P-rating is for people who think a big number is better.

Process: A program that is current running. PC CPU's cannot execute more than two instructions per clock cycle (Hertz). So, either the process has exclusive access to your computer or the process has to be scheduled by the Operating System. Modern OS's, like Windows, use special instructions on the CPU to help manage each process. Each OS has different ways of doing of scheduling processes to run. When a program is executed, it gets put into a scheduler. The scheduler makes sure all processes get time to the CPU. There are many processes running right now on your computer. Many require so little time on the CPU, you don't even know there are there.

Phising: Derived from the word "fishing" and it is an apt methapor. Someone dangles some bait onto a hook in an attempt to catch a fish. The bait is some authentic looking message. Many times, the bait message looks exactly like the real thing. How you can tell it is a scam is by reading the message and looking at the links in the message. The message will ask for personal information. That is the red flag. Companies will never ever ask for your personal information by calling or e-mailing. If in absolute doubt, call the company directly using a number you know is legit. You can also tell by looking at the links. The link you have to click to provide your personal information is never the link to the company's website. However, a good scam will open two windows, where one is the company's website, the other is a pop-up window where you can't see the website address, that window is the hook. All it does is record your personal information. At which point, you become a caught fish. Don't be a victim. If you get an e-mail from a company you are dealing with, call them to make sure of the e-mail's validity.

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