~~~ Computer terminologies 3 ~~~

1) Clock speed: Term used to describe the speed of a computer processor, measured in megahertz or, increasingly, gigahertz ? 700MHz or 1GHz (1,000MHz).

2) CMOS: Stands for complementary metal-oxide semiconductor, and pronounced cee-moss. This is a special computer chip that looks after system set-up information, like date and time and so forth.

3) Command prompt: Also known as DOS prompt. The Windows environment lets you point and click to navigate your way around the computer. However, the predecessor to Windows, DOS (disk operating system) requires typed in commands to control the PC ? and these are entered at the command prompt.

4) CompactFlash: Matchbook-size memory cards with no moving parts. These slot into various devices to store data. Popular with digital cameras and handheld computers.

5) Compression: To reduce the size of a file by encoding the data. This is useful for storing files which would otherwise take up lots of disk space, such as picture and video files. Compression also reduces transfer times, meaning files can be sent over the net, or to another disk, more quickly.

6) Configure: To tweak the functions of software or hardware to the particular settings you require. For example, Windows can be configured so that it displays a particular colour background, or so that it uses a larger typeface