Computer Acronyms and Abbreviations

CPU: Central Processing Unit. This is the computational core of your computer. It is the processor that does all the calculations.

CRT: Cathode Ray Tube. These are the older style monitors that were large and used more power than the newer LCD monitors.

DRM: Digital Rights Management. This is when music or video distributors encrypt the files so that they can only be played with certain media players or with certain licenses. This is done in an attempt to curb piracy that they feel is plaguing the industry.

DVI: Digital Visual Interface. This is the new standard for connectors and interface to output to newer wide-screen LCD monitors. It features faster data rates and higher resolution than the older VGA standard.

GPU: Graphics Processing Unit. This is the chip on your video card that does the calculations to display graphics to the computer screen.

LCD: Liquid Crystal Display. These are the newer monitors that have almost completely replaced CRT monitors. They use less power, take up less desk space, and are becoming increasingly less expensive.

RAM: Random Access Memory. This is the short term storage space that has faster read and write times than your hard drive. It stores information that your processor current is using or needs.

SATA: Serial ATA. This is the new interface for hard drives and optical drives in desktop computers. It features higher transfer rates than the older IDE standard, and smaller cables for improved airflow in computer cases.

USB: Universal Serial Bus. This is the current standard interface for connecting external devices to computers. The current standard is USB 2.0, which features data transfer rates many times than the previous standard of USB 1.1.

VGA: Video Graphics Array. This is the old standard for video output to monitors that uses a 15 pin connector, commonly blue on today's computers. It is slowly being replaced in most applications by DVI connectors.