Glossary K & L
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- Kernel:
- The kernel is the main portion of a computer's Operating System software.
It is the core that provides basic services for other portions of the operating system.
A scheduler decides which programs will share the kernel's processing time and in which order. A supervisor then gives the use of the computer to various processes at the times when they are scheduled.
Because the system constantly needs the code that composes the kernel, it is typically loaded into a very protected area of computer memory.
The Shell is the outermost portion of the operating system software, which interacts with user commands.Click here for more detail. (Select the window close button to return).
- LAN (local area network):
- A group of computers, physically connected in a manner that lets them communicate and interact with each other. Networks can be connected with different combinations of topologies, protocols, software and hardware.
- Latency:
- It is the delay between the moment you make a request from a computer's
storage device and the moment the storage device has located the data and
is ready to deliver it. Nearly every piece of computer hardware related to
data storage and retrieval, experiences some type of latency.
In networking, latency is used to describe the amount of time a packet of data needs to travel from the source to the destination.
- Linux:
- A freeware version of the Unix operating system, originally developed
by Linus Torvalds at the University of Helsinki in Finland.
There are several versions of Linux available, such as Red Hat and MkLinux.