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authorMartin Roth <gaumless@gmail.com>2022-05-30 11:19:22 -0600
committerFelix Singer <felixsinger@posteo.net>2022-06-23 04:53:12 +0000
commite0526fe02330d4296ececb1b81565b3aef28a129 (patch)
tree3951ff14fe2da3ba85689874fb7e07ac902a1349
parent93333cb34e5887ee6918354e859c3972e2d1a83d (diff)
Documentation: Add a list of acronyms
We have too many acronyms to keep track of. At one point, AMD and Intel used to use the same terms for things, but no longer. When I look at Intel patches now, I have no idea what they mean anymore. When I started trying to do the release notes, I kept having to look up the acronyms, so I figured I'd make a list. Signed-off-by: Martin Roth <gaumless@gmail.com> Change-Id: I4571bf468bbfc6a1a6f33399ba61032a18fe41ec Reviewed-on: https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/64805 Tested-by: build bot (Jenkins) <no-reply@coreboot.org> Reviewed-by: Felix Singer <felixsinger@posteo.net>
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+# Firmware and Computer Acronyms, Initialisms and Definitions
+
+** Note that this document even more of a work in progress than most **
+** of the coreboot documentation **
+
+## _0-9
+
+* _XXX - An underscore followed by 3 uppercase letters will typically be
+an ACPI specified method. Look in the [ACPI
+Spec](https://uefi.org/specifications) for details, or run the tool
+`acpihelp _XXX`
+* 2FA - [**Two-factor Authentication**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-factor_authentication)
+* 4G - In coreboot, this typically refers to the 4 gibibyte boundary of 32-bit addressable memory space.
+* 5G - Telecommunication: [**Fifth-Generation Cellular Network**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G)
+
+## A
+* ABI - [**Application Binary Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_binary_interface)
+* ABL - AMD: AGESA BootLoader (or AMD BootLoader) - The portion of the AMD processor
+ initialization that happens from the PSP. Significantly, Memory
+ Initialization.
+* AC - Electricity: [**Alternating Current**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternating_current)
+* Ack - Acknowledgment
+* ACM – [**Authenticated Code Module**](https://doc.coreboot.org/security/intel/acm.html)
+* ACP - [**Average CPU power**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_design_power)
+* ACPI - The [**Advanced Configuration and Power
+ Interface**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Configuration_and_Power_Interface)
+ is an industry standard for letting the OS control power management.
+ * [http://www.acpi.info/](http://www.acpi.info/)
+ * [http://kernelslacker.livejournal.com/88243.html](http://kernelslacker.livejournal.com/88243.html)
+* ADC - [**Analog-to-Digital Converter**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog-to-digital_converter)
+* ADL - Intel: [**Alder Lake**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/microarchitectures/alder_lake)
+* AES - [**Advanced Encryption Standard**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Encryption_Standard)
+* AGESA - [**AMD Generic Encapsulated Software Architecture**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGESA_
+* AGP - The [**Accelerated Graphics
+ Port**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Graphics_Port) is an
+ older (1997-2004) point-to-point bus for video cards to communicate
+ with the processor.
+* AHCI - The [**Advanced Host Controller
+ Interface**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Host_Controller_Interface)
+ is a standard register set for communicating with a SATA controller.
+ * [http://www.intel.com/technology/serialata/ahci.htm](http://www.intel.com/technology/serialata/ahci.htm)
+ * [http://download.intel.com/technology/serialata/pdf/rev1_3.pdf](http://download.intel.com/technology/serialata/pdf/rev1_3.pdf)
+* AIC - Add-in Card
+* AIO - Computer formfactor: [**All In One**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_computer#All-in-one)
+* ALIB - AMD: ACPI-ASL Library
+* ALS - [**Ambient Light Sensor**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambient_light_sensor)
+* ALU - [**Arithmetic Logic Unit**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arithmetic_logic_unit)
+* AMD64 - Another name for [**x86-64**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64)
+* AMPL - AMD: [**Advanced Platform Management Link**](https://web.archive.org/web/20220509053546/https://developer.amd.com/wordpress/media/2012/10/419181.pdf) - Also referred to as
+ SBI: Sideband Interface
+* AMT - Intel: [**Active Management Technology**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Active_Management_Technology)
+* ANSI - [**American National Standards Institute**](American_National_Standards_Institute)
+* AOAC - AMD: Always On, Always Connected
+* AP - Application processor - The main processor on the board (as
+ opposed to the embedded controller or other processors that may be on
+ the system), any cores in processor chip that isn’t the BSP - Boot
+ Strap Processor.
+* APCB - AMD: AMD PSP Customization Block
+* API - [**Application Programming Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/API)
+* APIC - [**Advanced Programmable Interrupt
+ Controller**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Programmable_Interrupt_Controller)
+ this is an advanced version of a PIC that can handle interrupts from
+ and for multiple CPUs. Modern systems usually have several APICs:
+ Local APICs (LAPIC) are CPU-bound, IO-APICs are bridge-bound.
+ * [http://osdev.berlios.de/pic.html](http://osdev.berlios.de/pic.html)
+* APL - Intel: [**Apollo Lake**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/cores/apollo_lake)
+* APM - [**Advanced Power Management**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Power_Management) - The standard for power management
+ before ACPI (Yes, they’re both advanced). APM was managed entirely by
+ the firmware and the operating system had no control or even awareness
+ of the power management.
+* APOB - AMD: [**AGESA PSP Output Buffer**](https://doc.coreboot.org/soc/amd/family17h.html#additional-definitions)
+* APU - AMD: [**Accelerated Processing Unit**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_Accelerated_Processing_Unit)
+* ARC - HDMI: [**Audio Return Channel**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#ARC)
+* ARM - [**Advanced RISC Machines**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arm_%28company%29) - Originally Acorn RISC Machine. This
+ may refer to either the company or the instruction set.
+* ARP - Networking: [**Address Resolution Protocol**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Address_Resolution_Protocol)
+* ASCII - [**American Standard Code for Information Interchange**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII)
+* ASEG - The A_0000h-B_FFFFh memory segment - this area was typically
+ hidden by the Video BIOS
+* ASF - [**Alert Standard Format**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alert_Standard_Format)
+* ASL - [**ACPI Source Language**](https://uefi.org/htmlspecs/ACPI_Spec_6_4_html/19_ASL_Reference/ACPI_Source_Language_Reference.html)
+* ASLR - Address Space Layout Randomization
+* ASP - AMD: AMD Security Processor (Formerly the PSP - Platform
+ Security Processor)
+* ASPM - PCI: [**Active State Power
+ Management**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_State_Power_Management)
+* ATA - [**Advanced Technology Attachment**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_ATA)
+* ATAPI - [**ATA Packet Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_ATA#ATAPI)
+* ATX - [**Advanced Technology eXtended**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX)
+* AVX - [**Advanced Vector Extensions**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Vector_Extensions)
+
+
+## B
+
+* BAR - [**Base Address Register**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_Address_Register) This generally refers to one of the
+ base address registers in the PCI config space of a PCI device
+* Baud - [**Baud**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baud) - Not an acronym - Symbol rate unit of symbols per second, named
+ after Émile Baudot
+* BBS - [**BIOS boot specification**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Option_ROM#BIOS_Boot_Specification)
+* BCD - [**Binary-Coded Decimal**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary-coded_decimal)
+* BCT - Intel: [**Binary Configuration Tool**](https://github.com/intel/BCT)
+* BDA - [**BIOS Data Area**](http://www.bioscentral.com/misc/bda.htm) This refers to the memory area of 0x40:0000 which is where the original PC-BIOS stored its data tables.
+* BDF - [**BUS, Device, Function**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_configuration_space#Technical_information) - A way of referencing a PCI Device
+ function address.
+* BDS - UEFI: [**Boot-Device Select**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface#BDS_%E2%80%93_Boot_Device_Select)
+* BDW - Intel: [**Broadwell**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/microarchitectures/broadwell_%28client%29)
+* BERT - ACPI: [**Boot Error Record Table**](https://uefi.org/specs/ACPI/6.4/18_ACPI_Platform_Error_Interfaces/error-source-discovery.html)
+* BGA - [**Ball Grid Array**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_grid_array)
+* BGP - Networking: [**Border Gateway Protocol**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_Gateway_Protocol)
+* Big Real mode - Real mode running in a way that allows it to access
+ the entire 4GiB of the 32-bit address space. Also known as flat mode
+ or [**Unreal mode**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_mode).
+* BIOS - [**Basic Input/Output
+ System**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS)
+* BIST - The [**Built-in Self Test**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Built-in_self-test) is a test run by the processor on
+ itself when it is first started. Usually, any nonzero value indicates
+ that the selftest failed.
+* Bit-banging - [**Bit-banging**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_banging) - A term for the method of emulating a more complex
+ protocol by using GPIOs.
+* BKDG - AMD: [**Bios & Kernel Developers' guide**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/amd/List_of_AMD_publications) (Replaced by the PPR -
+ Processor Programming Reference)
+* BLOB - [**Binary Large OBject**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_large_object) - Originally a collection of binary files
+ stored as a single object, this was co-opted by the open source
+ communities to mean any proprietary binary file that is not available
+ as source code.
+* BMC - [**Baseboard Management Controller**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_Platform_Management_Interface#Baseboard_management_controller)
+* BMP - [**Bitmap**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMP_file_format)
+* BOM - [**Bill of Materials**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_materials)
+* BPDT - Boot Partition Description Table
+* bps - Bits Per Second
+* BS - coreboot: Boot State - coreboot's ramstage sequence are made up
+ of boot states. Each of these states can be hooked to run functions
+ before the stat, during the state, or after the state is complete.
+* BSF - Intel: [**Boot Specification File**](https://www.intel.com/content/dam/develop/external/us/en/documents/boot-setting-1-0-820293.pdf)
+* BSP - BootStrap Processor - The initialization core of the main
+ system processor. This is the processor core that starts the boot
+ process.
+* BSS - [**Block Starting Symbol**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.bss)
+* BT - [**Bluetooth**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth)
+* Bus - Initially a term for a number of connectors wired together in
+ parallel, this is now used as a term for any hardware communication
+ method.
+* BWG - Intel: BIOS Writers Guide
+
+
+## C
+* C-states: ACPI Processor Idle states.
+ [**C-States**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/acpi/c-states) C0-Cx: Each
+ higher number saves more power, but takes longer to return to a fully
+ running processor.
+* C0 - ACPI Defined Processor Idle state: Active - CPU is running
+* C1 - ACPI Defined Processor Idle state: Halt - Nothing currently
+ running, but can start running again immediately
+* C2 - ACPI Defined Processor Idle state: Stop-clock - core clocks off
+* C3 - ACPI Defined Processor Idle state: Sleep - L1 & L2 caches may be
+ saved to Last Level Cache (LLC), core powered down.
+* C4+ - Processor Specific idle states
+* CAR - [**Cache As RAM**](https://web.archive.org/web/20140818050214/https://www.coreboot.org/data/yhlu/cache_as_ram_lb_09142006.pdf)
+* CBFS - coreboot filesystem
+* CBMEM - coreboot Memory
+* CBI - Google: [**CrOS Board Information**](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/HEAD/design_docs/cros_board_info.md)
+* CDN - [**Content Delivery Network**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_delivery_network)
+* CEM - PCIe: [**Card ElectroMechanical**](https://members.pcisig.com/wg/PCI-SIG/document/folder/839) specification
+* CFL - [**Coffee Lake**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/microarchitectures/coffee_lake)
+* CID - [**Coverity ID**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity)
+* CIM - [**Common Information Model**](https://www.dmtf.org/standards/cim)
+* CISC - [**Complex Instruction Set Computer**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_instruction_set_computer)
+* CL - Change List - A git patch in gerrit
+* CLK - Clock - Used when there isn't enough room for 2 additional
+ characters - similar to RST, for people who hate vowels.
+* CML - Intel: [**Comet Lake**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/microarchitectures/comet_lake)
+* CMOS - [**Complementary Metal Oxide
+ Semiconductor**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonvolatile_BIOS_memory)
+ - This is a method of making ICs (Integrated Circuits). For BIOS, it’s
+ generally used to describe a section of NVRAM (Non-volatile RAM), in
+ this case a section battery-backed memory in the RTC (Real Time Clock)
+ that is typically used to store BIOS settings.
+ *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonvolatile_BIOS_memory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonvolatile_BIOS_memory)
+* CNL - Intel: [**Cannon Lake**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/microarchitectures/cannon_lake) (formerly Skymont)
+* CNVi - Intel: [**Connectivity Integration**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNVi)
+* CPL - x86: Current Privilege Level - Privilege levels range from 0-3; lower numbers are more privileged.
+* CPLD - [**Complex Programmable Logic Device**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_programmable_logic_device)
+* CPS - Characters Per Second
+* CPU - [**Central Processing
+ Unit**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_processing_unit)
+* CPUID - x86: [**CPU Identification**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPUID) opcode
+* Cr50 - Google: The first generation Google Security Chip (GSC) used on
+ Chrome OS devices.
+* CRB - Customer Reference Board
+* CRLF - Carriage Return, Line Feed - \\r\\n - The standard window EOL
+ (End-of-Line) marker.
+* crt0 - [**C Run Time 0**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crt0)
+* crt0s - crt0 Source code
+* CRT - [**Cathode Ray Tube**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathode-ray_tube)
+* CSE - Intel: Converged Security Engine
+* CSI - MIPI: [**Camera Serial
+ Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_Serial_Interface)
+* CSME - Intel: Converged Security and Management Engine
+* CVE - [**Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Vulnerabilities_and_Exposures)
+* CZN - AMD: Cezanne - CPU Family 19h, Model 50h
+
+
+## D
+
+* D-States - [**ACPI Device power
+ states**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Configuration_and_Power_Interface#Device_states)
+ D0-D3 - These are device specific power states, with each higher
+ number requiring less power, and typically taking a longer time to get
+ back to D0, fully running.
+* D0 - ACPI Device power state: Active - Device fully on and running
+* D1 - ACPI Device power state: Lower power than D0
+* D2 - ACPI Device power state: Lower power than D1
+* D3 Hot - ACPI Device power state: Device is in a low power state, but
+ still has power.
+* D3 Cold - ACPI Device power state: Power is completely removed from
+ the device.
+* DASH - [**Desktop and mobile Architecture for System Hardware**](Desktop_and_mobile_Architecture_for_System_Hardware)
+* DB - DaughterBoard
+* DC - Electricity: Direct Current
+* DCP - Digital Content Protection
+* DCR - **Decode Control Register** This is a way of identifying the
+ hardware in question. This is generally paired with a Vendor ID (VID)
+* DDC - [**Display Data Channel**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_Data_Channel)
+* DDI - Intel: Digital Display Interface
+* DDR - [**Double Data Rate**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_data_rate)
+* DHCP - [**Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Host_Configuration_Protocol)
+* DID - Device Identifier
+* DIMM - [**Dual Inline Memory Module**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIMM)
+* DIP - [**Dual inline package**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_in-line_package)
+* DMA - [**Direct Memory
+ Access**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_memory_access) Allows
+ certain hardware subsystems within a computer to access system memory
+ for reading and/or writing independently of the main CPU. Examples of
+ systems that use DMA: Hard Disk Controller, Disk Drive Controller,
+ Graphics Card, Sound Card. DMA is an essential feature of all modern
+ computers, as it allows devices of different speeds to communicate
+ without subjecting the CPU to a massive interrupt load.
+* DMI - [**Desktop Management Interface**}(Desktop_Management_Interface)
+* DMIC - Digital Microphone
+* DMTF - [**Distributed Management Task Force**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_Management_Task_Force)
+* DMZ - Demilitarized Zone
+* DNS - [**Domain Name Service**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System)
+* DNV - Intel: [**Denverton**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/cores/denverton)
+* DOS - Disk Operating System
+* DP - DisplayPort
+* DPTF - Intel: Dynamic Power and Thermal Framework
+* DRAM - Memory: [**Dynamic Random Access Memory**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_random-access_memory)
+* DRTM - Dynamic Root of Trust for Measurement
+* DQ - Memory: Data I/O signals. On a D-flipflop, used for SRAM, the
+ data-in pin is generally referred to as D, and the data-out pin is Q,
+ thus the IO Data signal lines are referred to as DQ lines.
+* DQS - Memory: Data Q Strobe - Data valid signal for DDR memory.
+* DRM - [**Digital Rights Management**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management)
+* DRQ - DMA Request
+* DRTU - Intel: Diagnostics and Regulatory Testing Utility
+* DSDT - The [**Differentiated System Descriptor
+ Table**](http://acpi.sourceforge.net/dsdt/index.php), is generated by
+ BIOS and necessary for ACPI. Implementation of ACPI in coreboot needs
+ to be done in a "cleanroom" development process and **MAY NOT BE
+ COPIED** from an existing firmware to avoid legal issues.
+* DSC - [**Digital Signal Controller**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signal_controller)
+* DSL - [**Digital subscriber line**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_subscriber_line)
+* DSP - [**Digital Signal Processor**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signal_processor)
+* DTB - U-Boot: Device Tree Binary
+* dTPM - Discrete Trusted Platform Module
+* DTS - U-Boot: Device Tree Source
+* DVFS - ARM: Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling
+* DVI - [**Digital Video Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface)
+* DVT - Production Timeline: Design Validation Test
+* DW - DesignWare
+* DXE - UEFI: [**Driver Execution Environment**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface#DXE_%E2%80%93_Driver_Execution_Environment_
+* DXIO - AMD: Distributed CrossBar I/O
+
+
+## E
+
+* EBDA - Extended BIOS Data Area
+* ECC - [**Error Correction Code**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_correction_code) - Typically used to refer to a type of
+ memory that can detect and correct memory errors.
+* EDID - [**Extended Display Identification Data**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Display_Identification_Data)
+* EDK2 - EFI Development Kit 2
+* EDO - Memory: [**Extended Data
+ Out**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_random-access_memory#Extended_data_out_DRAM)
+ - A DRAM standard introduced in 1994 that improved upon, but was
+ backwards compatible with FPM (Fast Page Mode) memory.
+* EDP - [**Embedded DisplayPort**](DisplayPort)
+* EDS - Intel: External Design Specification
+* EEPROM - [**Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EEPROM) (common mistake:
+ electrical erasable programmable ROM).
+* EFI - [**Extensible Firmware Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface)
+* EHCI - [**Enhanced Host Controller Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_controller_interface_%28USB%2C_Firewire%29#EHCI) - USB 2.0
+* EHL - Intel: [**Elkhart Lake**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/cores/elkhart_lake)
+* EIDE - Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics
+* EMI - [**ElectroMagnetic
+ Interference**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_interference)
+* eMMC - [**embedded MultiMedia
+ Card**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MultiMediaCard#eMMC)
+* EOP - End of POST
+* EOL - End of Life
+* EPP - Intel: Energy-Performance Preference
+* EPROM - Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
+* ESD - Electrostatic discharge
+* eSPI - Enhanced System Peripheral Interface
+* EVT - Production Timeline: Engineering Validation Test
+
+
+## F
+
+* FADT - ACPI Table: Fixed ACPI Description Table
+* FAE - Field Application Engineer
+* FAT - File Allocation Table
+* FCH - AMD: Firmware Control Hub
+* FCS - Production Timeline: First Customer Shipment
+* FDD - Floppy Disk Drive
+* FFS - UEFI: Firmware File System
+* FIFO - First In, First Out
+* FIT - Intel: Firmware Interface Table
+* FIT - Flattened-Image Tree
+* FIVR - Intel: Fully Integrated Voltage Regulators
+* Flashing - Flashing means the writing of flash memory. The BIOS on
+ modern mainboards is stored in a NOR flash EEPROM chip.
+* Flat mode - Real mode running in a way that allows it to access the
+ entire 4GiB of the 32-bit address space. Also known as Unreal mode or
+ Big Real mode
+* FMAP - coreboot: [**Flash map**](https://doc.coreboot.org/lib/flashmap.html)
+* FPDT - ACPI: Firmware Performance Data Table
+* FPGA - [**Field-Programmable Gate Array**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field-programmable_gate_array)
+* Framebuffer - The
+ [**framebuffer**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framebuffer) is a part
+ of RAM in a computer which is allocated to hold the graphics
+ information for one frame or picture. This information typically
+ consists of color values for every pixel on the screen. A framebuffer
+ is either:
+ * Off-screen, meaning that writes to the framebuffer don't appear on
+ the visible screen.
+ * On-screen, meaning that the framebuffer is directly coupled to the
+ visible display.
+* FPM - Memory: [**Fast Page Mode**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_random-access_memory#Page_mode_DRAM) - A DRAM standard introduced in 1990.
+* FPU - [**Floating-Point Unit**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating-point_unit)
+* FSB - [**Front-Side Bus**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front-side_bus)
+* FSP - Intel: Firmware Support Package
+* FTP - Network Protocol: [**File Transfer Protocol**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Transfer_Protocol)
+* FTPM - Firmware TPM
+
+
+## G
+
+* G0 - ACPI Global Power State: System is running
+* G0-G3 - ACPI Global Power States
+* G1 - ACPI Global Power State: System is suspended
+* G2 - ACPI Global Power State: Soft power-off. The mainboard is off,
+ but can be woken up electronically, by a button, wake-on-lan, a
+ keypress, or some other method.
+* G3 - ACPI Global Power State: Mechanical Off. There is no power going
+ to the system except for a small battery to keep the CMOS contents,
+ Real Time Clock, and maybe a few other registers running.
+* GART - AMD: [**Graphics Address Remapping Table**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_address_remapping_table)
+* GATT - Graphics Aperture Translation Table
+* GLK - Intel: [**Gemini Lake**](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/cores/gemini_lake)
+* GMA - Intel: [**Graphics Media
+ Accelerator**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA)
+* GNB - Graphics NorthBridge
+* GNVS - Global Non-Volatile Storage
+* GPD - PCH GPIO in Deep Sleep well (D5 power)
+* GPI - GPIOs: GPIO Input
+* GPIO - [**General Purpose Input/Output**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General-purpose_Input/Output) (Pin)
+* GPMR - Intel: General Purpose Memory Range
+* GPO - GPIOs: GPIO Output
+* GPP - AMD: General Purpose (PCI/PCIe) port
+* GPP - Intel: PCH GPIO in Primary Well (S0 power only)
+* GPS - Nvidia: GPU Performance Scale
+* GPT - UEFI: [**GUID Partition Table**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table)
+* GPU - [**Graphics Processing Unit**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_processing_unit)
+* GSoC - [**Google Summer of Code**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code)
+* GSC - Google Security Chip - Typically Cr50/Ti50, though could also refer to the titan chips
+* GUID - UEFI: [**Globally Unique IDentifier**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universally_unique_identifier)
+
+
+## H
+
+* HDA - [**High Definition Audio**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_High_Definition_Audio)
+* HDCP - [**High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-bandwidth_Digital_Content_Protection)
+* HDD - Hard Disk Drive
+* HDMI - [**High-Definition Multimedia Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI)
+* HDR - [**High Dynamic Range**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range)
+* HECI - Intel: [**Host Embedded Controller Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_Embedded_Controller_Interface) (Replaced by MEI)
+* HID - [**Human Interface
+ Device**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_interface_device)
+* HOB - UEFI: Hand-Off Block
+* HPET - [**High Precision Event Timer**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Precision_Event_Timer)
+* HSTI - Hardware Security Test Interface
+* HSW - Intel: Haswell
+* Hybrid S3 - System Power State: This is where the operating system
+ saves the contents of RAM out to the Hard drive, as if preparing to go
+ to S4, but then goes into suspend to RAM. This allows the system to
+ resume quickly from S3 if the system stays powered, and resume from
+ the disk if power is lost.
+* Hypertransport - AMD: The
+ [**Hypertransport**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertransport) bus
+ is an older (2001-2017) high-speed electrical interconnection protocol
+ specification between CPU, Memory, and (occasionally) peripheral
+ devices. This was originally called the Lightning Data Transport
+ (LDT), which could be seen reflected in various register names.
+ Hypertransport was replaced by AMD's Infinity Fabric (IF) on AMD's Zen
+ processors.
+
+
+## I
+
+* I2C - **Inter-Integrated Circuit** is a bidirectional 2-wire bus for
+ communication generally between different ICs on a circuit board.
+ * [https://www.esacademy.com/en/library/technical-articles-and-documents/miscellaneous/i2c-bus.html](https://www.esacademy.com/en/library/technical-articles-and-documents/miscellaneous/i2c-bus.html)
+* I2S - [**Inter-IC Sound**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%C2%B2S)
+* I3C - [**I3c**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I3C_%28bus%29) is not an
+ acronym - The follower to I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit)
+ - Also known as SenseWire
+* IA - Intel Architecture
+* IA-64 - Intel Itanium 64-bit architecture
+* IBB – Initial Boot Block
+* IBV - Independent BIOS Vendor
+* IC - Integrated Circuit
+* ICL - Intel: Ice Lake
+* IDE - Software: Integrated Development Environment
+* IDE - Integrated Drive Electronics - A type of hard drive - Used
+ interchangeable with ATA, though IDE describes the drive, and ATA
+ describes the interface. Generally replaced by SATA (Though again,
+ SATA describes the interface, not actually the drive)
+* IDSEL/AD - Initialization Device SELect/Address and Data. Each PCI
+ slot has a signal called IDSEL. It is used to differentiate between
+ the different slots.
+* IF - AMD: [**Infinity
+ Fabric**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperTransport#Infinity_Fabric)
+ is a superset of AMD's earlier Hypertransport interconnect.
+* IMC - AMD: Integrated micro-controller - An 8051 microcontroller built
+ into some AMD FCHs (Fusion Controller Hubs) and Southbridge chips.
+ This never worked well for anything beyond fan control and caused
+ numerous issues by reading from the BIOS flash chip, preventing other
+ devices from communicating with the flash chip at runtime.
+* IMC - Integrated Memory Controller - This is a less usual use of the
+ IMC acronym, but seems to be growing somewhat.
+* IO or I/O - Input/Output
+* IoC - Security: Indicator of Compromise
+* IOC - Intel: I/O Cache
+* IOE - Intel: I/O Expander
+* IOM - Intel: I/O Manager
+* IOMMU - [**I/O Memory Management Unit**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input%E2%80%93output_memory_management_unit)
+* IOMUX - AMD: The I/O Mux block controls how each GPIO is configured.
+* IOSF - Intel: Intel On-chip System Fabric
+* IP - Intellectual Property
+* IP - Internet Protocol
+* IPC - Inter-Processor Communication/Inter-Process Communication
+* IPI - Inter Processor Interrupt
+* IPMI - Intelligent Platform Management Interface
+* IRQ - Interrupt Request
+* ISA - Instruction set architecture
+* ISA (bus) - Industry standard architecture - Replaced generally by PCI
+ (Peripheral Control Interface)
+* ISDN - Integrated Services Digital Network
+* ISH - AMD PSP: Image Slot Header
+* ISH - Intel: Integrated Sensor Hub - A microcontroller built into the
+ processor to help offload data processing from various sensors on a
+ mainboard.
+* ISP - Internet Service Provider
+* IVHD - ACPI: I/O Virtualization Hardware Definition
+* IVMD - ACPI: I/O Virtualization Memory Definition
+* IVRS - I/O Virtualization Reporting Structure
+
+
+## J
+
+* JEDEC - Joint Electron Device Engineering Council
+* JSL - Intel: Jasper Lake
+* JTAG - The [**Joint Test Action
+ Group**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JTAG) created a standard for
+ communicating between chips to verify and test ICs and PCB designs.
+ The standard was named after the group, and has become a standard
+ method of accessing special debug functions on a chip allowing for
+ hardware-level debug of both the hardware and software.
+
+
+## K
+
+* KBL - Intel: Kaby Lake
+* KVM - Keyboard Video Mouse
+
+
+## L
+* L0s - ASPM Power State: Turn off power for one direction of the PCIe
+ serial link.
+* L1-Cache - The fastest but smallest memory cache on a processor.
+ Frequently split into Instruction and Data caches (I-Cache / D-Cache,
+ also occasionally abbreviated as i$ and d$)
+* L1 - ASPM Power State: The L1 power state shuts the PCIe link off
+ completely until triggered to resume by the CLKREQ# signal.
+* L2-Cache - The second level of memory cache on a processor, this is a
+ larger cache than L1, but takes longer to access. Typically checked
+ only after data has not been found in the L1-cache.
+* L3-Cache - The Third, and typically final memory cache level on a
+ processor. The L3 cache is typically quite a bit larger than the L1 &
+ L2 caches, but again takes longer to access, though it's still much
+ faster than reading memory. The L3 cache is frequently shared between
+ multiple cores on a modern CPU.
+* LAN - Local Area Network
+* LAPIC - Local APIC
+* LBA - Logical Block Address
+* LCD - Liquid Crystal Display
+* LCAP - PCIe:Link Capabilities
+* LED - Light Emitting Diode
+* LF - Line Feed - The standard Unix EOL (End-of-Line) marker.
+* LGTM - Looks Good To Me
+* LLC - Last Level Cache
+* LLVM - Initially stood for Low Level Virtual Machine, but now is just
+ the name of the project, as it has expanded past its original goal.
+* LP5 - LPDDR5
+* LPDDR5 - [**Low-Power DDR 5 SDRAM**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LPDDR)
+* LPC - The [**Low Pin
+ count**](http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/industry/lpc.htm) bus
+ was a replacement for the ISA bus, created by serializing a number of
+ parallel signals to get rid of those connections.
+* LPT - Line Print Terminal, Local Print Terminal, or Line Printer. -
+ The Parallel Port
+* LRU - Least Recently Used - a rule used in operating systems that
+ utilises a paging system. LRU selects a page to be paged out if it has
+ been used less recently than any other page. This may be applied to a
+ cache system as well.
+* LSB - Least Significant Bit
+* LTE - Telecommunication: [**Long-Term
+ Evolution**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_%28telecommunication%29)
+* LVDS - Low-Voltage Differential Signaling
+
+
+## M
+
+* M.2 - An interface specification for small peripheral cards.
+* MAC Address - Media Access Control Address
+* MBR - Master Boot Record
+* MCA - [**Machine Check Architecture**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_Check_Architecture)
+* MCR - Machine Check Registers
+* MCU - Memory Control Unit
+* MCU - [**MicroController
+ Unit**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcontroller)
+* MDFIO - Intel: Multi-Die Fabric IO
+* ME - Intel: Management Engine
+* MEI - Intel: ME Interface (Previously known as HECI)
+* Memory training - the process of finding the best speeds, voltages,
+ and delays for system memory.
+* MHU: ARM: Message Handling Unit
+* MIPI: The [**Mobile Industry Processor
+ Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIPI_Alliance) Alliance has
+ developed a number of different specifications for mobile devices.
+ The Camera Serial Interface (CSI) is a widely used interface that has
+ made its way into laptops.
+* MIPS - Millions of Instructions per Second
+* MIPS (processor) - Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipelined
+ Stages.
+* MKBP - Matrix Keyboard Protocol
+* MMC - [**MultiMedia
+ Card**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MultiMediaCard)
+* MMIO - [**Memory Mapped I/O**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMIO)
+ allows peripherals' memory or registers to be accessed directly
+ through the memory bus. When the memory bus size was very small, this
+ was initially done by hiding any memory at that address, effectively
+ wasting that memory. In modern systems, that memory is typically
+ moved to the end of the physical memory space, freeing a 'hole' to map
+ devices into.
+* MMU - Memory Management Unit
+* MMX - Officially, not an acronym, trademarked by Intel. Unofficially,
+ Matrix Math eXtension.
+* MODEM - Modulator-Demodulator
+* Modern Standby - Microsoft's name for the S0iX states
+* MOP - Macro-Operation
+* MOS - Metal-Oxide-Silicon
+* MP - Production Timeline: Mass Production
+* MPU - Memory Protection Unit
+* MPTable - The Intel [**MultiProcessor
+ specification**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MultiProcessor_Specification)
+ is a hardware compatibility guide for machine hardware designers and
+ OS software writers to produce SMP-capable machines and OSes in a
+ vendor-independent manner. Version 1.1 of the spec was released in
+ 1994, and the 1.4 version was released in 1995. This has been
+ generally been
+ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MultiProcessor_Specification by the ACPI
+ tables.
+* MRC - Intel: Memory Reference Code
+* MSB - Most Significant Bit
+* MSI - Message Signaled Interrupt
+* MSR - Machine-Specific Register
+* MT/s - MegaTransfers per second
+* MTL - Intel: Meteor Lake
+* MTL - ARM: MHU Transport Layer
+* MTRR - [**Memory Type and Range
+ Register**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTRR)
+
+
+## N
+
+* Nack - Negative Acknowledgement
+* NBCI - Nvidia: NoteBook Common Interface
+* NC - GPIOs: No Connect
+* NDA - Non-Disclosure Agreement.
+* NF - GPIOs: Native Function - GPIOs frequently have multiple different
+ functions, one of which is defined as the default, or Native function.
+* NFC - [**Near Field
+ Communication**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-field_communication)
+* NGFF - [**Next Generation Form
+ Factor**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.2) - The original name for
+ M.2
+* NHLT - ACPI Table - Non-HDA Link Table
+* NIC - Network Interface Card
+* NMI - Non-maskable interrupt
+* Nonce - Cryptography: [**Number used once**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographic_nonce)
+* NOP - No Operation
+* NTFS - New Technology File System
+* NVME - Non-Volatile Memory Express - An SSD interface that allows
+ access to the flash memory through a PCIe bus.
+* NVPCF - Nvidia Platform and Control Framework
+* NX - No Execute
+
+
+## O
+
+* ODH - GPIOs: Open Drain High - High is driven to the reference voltage, low is a high-impedance state
+* ODL - GPIOs: Open Drain Low - Low is driven to ground, High is a high-impedance state.
+* ODM - Original Design Manufacturer
+* OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer
+* OHCI - [**Open Host Controller
+ Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_Controller_Interface_%28USB%29)
+ - non-proprietary USB Host controller for USB 1.1 (May also refer to
+ the open host controller for IEEE 1394, but this is less common).
+* OOBE - Out Of the Box Experience
+* OPP - ARM: Operating Performance Points
+* OS - Operating System
+* OTA - Over the Air
+* OTP - One Time Programmable
+
+
+## P
+
+* PAE - physical address extension
+* PAL - Programmable Array Logic
+* PAM - Intel: Programmable Attribute Map - This is the legacy BIOS
+ region from 0xC_0000 to 0xF_FFFF
+* PAT - [**Page Attribute
+ Table**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_attribute_table) This can
+ be used independently or in combination with MTRR to setup memory type
+ access ranges. Allows more finely-grained control than MTRR.
+* PAT - Intel: [**Performance Acceleration
+ Technology**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_acceleration_technology)
+* PATA - Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment - A renaming of ATA
+ after SATA became the standard.
+* PAVP - [**Intel: Protected Audio-Video
+ Path**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA#Protected_Audio_Video_Path)
+* PC - Personal Computer
+* PC AT - Personal Computer Advanced Technology
+* PC100 - An SDRAM specification for a 100MHz memory bus.
+* PCB - Printed Circuit Board
+* PCD - UEFI: Platform Configuration Database
+* PCH - Intel: [**Platform Controller Hub**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_Controller_Hub)
+* PCI - [**Peripheral Control
+ Interconnect**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripheral_Component_Interconnect)
+ - Replaced generally by PCIe (PCI Express)
+* PCI Configuration Space - The [**PCI Config
+ space**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Configuration_Space) is an
+ [address space](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Address_space) for all
+ PCI devices. Originally, this address space was accessed through an
+ index/data pair by writing the address that you wanted to read/write
+ into the I/O address 0xCF8, then reading or writing I/O Address 0xCFC.
+ This has been updated to an MMIO method which increases each PCI
+ function's configuration space from 256 bytes to 4K.
+* PCIe - [**PCI Express**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pci_express)
+* PCMCIA: Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
+* PCO - AMD: Picasso
+* PCR: TPM: Platform Configuration Register
+* PD - GPIOs: Pull-Down - Setting the pin high drives it to the reference voltage. Setting it low drives it to ground through a resistor.
+* PD - Power Delivery - This is a specification for communicating power
+ needs and availability between two devices, typically over USB type C.
+* PEG - PCIe Graphics - A (typically) x16 PCIe slot connected to the CPU
+ for higher graphics bandwidth and lower latency.
+* PEI - UEFI: Pre-EFI Initialization
+* PEIM - UEFI: PEI Module
+* PEP - Intel: Power Engine Plug-in
+* PHY - [**PHYsical layer**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHY) - The
+ hardware that implements the send/receive functionality of a
+ communication protocol.
+* PI - Platform Initialization
+* PIC - [**Programmable Interrupt
+ Controller**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_interrupt_controller)
+* PII - [**Personally Identifiable
+ Information**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_data)
+* PIO - [**Programmed
+ I/O**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmed_input%E2%80%93output)
+* PIR - PCI Interrupt Router
+* PIR Table - The [**PCI Interrupt Routing
+ Table**](https://web.archive.org/web/20080206072638/http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/pciirq.mspx)
+ was a Microsoft specification that allowed windows to determine how
+ each PCI slot was wired to the interrupt router.
+* PIRQ - PCI IRQ
+* PIT - Generally refers to the 8253/8254 [**Programmable Interval
+ Timer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_interval_timer).
+* PLCC - [**Plastic leaded chip
+ carrier**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_leaded_chip_carrier)
+* PLL - [**Phase-Locked
+ Loop**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-locked_loop)
+* PM - Platform Management
+* PM - Power Management
+* PMC Intel: Power Management Controller
+* PMIC - Power Management IC (Pronounced "P-mick")
+* PMIO - Port-Mapped I/O
+* PMU - Power Management Unit
+* PNP - Plug aNd Play
+* PoP - Point-of-Presence
+* POR - Plan of Record
+* POR - Power On Reset
+* Port80 - The [**I/O port
+ 0x80**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-on_self-test#Progress_and_error_reporting)
+ is the address for BIOS writes to update diagnostic information during
+ the boot process.
+* POST - [**Power-On Self
+ Test**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-on_self-test)
+* POTS - [**Plain Old Telephone
+ Service**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_old_telephone_service)
+* PPI - UEFI: PEIM-to-PEIM Interface
+* PPR: Processor Programming Reference
+* PPT - AMD: Package Power Tracking
+* PROM: Programmable Read Only Memory
+* Proto - Production Timeline: The first initial production to test key
+ concepts.
+* PSE - Page Size Extention
+* PSP - AMD: Platform Security Processor
+* PSPP - AMD: PCIE Speed Power Policy
+* PU - GPIOs: Pull-Up - Setting the pin low drives it to ground. Setting it high drives it to the reference voltage through a resistor.
+* PVT - Production Timeline: (Production Validation Test
+* PWM - Pulse Width Modulation
+* PXE - Pre-boot Execution Environment
+
+
+## Q
+
+* QOS - Quality of Service
+
+
+## R
+
+* RAID - redundant array of inexpensive disks - as opposed to SLED -
+ single large expensive disk.
+* RAM - Random Access Memory
+* RAMID - Boards that have soldered-down memory (no DIMMs) can have
+ various different sizes, speeds, and brands of memory chips attached.
+ Because there is no SPD, (for cost savings) the memory needs to be
+ identified in a different manner. The simplest of these is done using
+ a set of 3 or 4 GPIOs to allow 8 to 16 different memory chips to be
+ used.
+* RAPL - Running Average Power Limit
+* RCS - [**Revision control
+ system**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revision_Control_System)
+* Real mode - The original 20-bit addressing mode of the 8086 & 8088
+ computers, allowing the system to access 1MiB of memory through a
+ Segment:Offset index pair. In 2022, this is still the mode that
+ x86-64 processors are in at the reset vector!
+* RDMA - [**Remote Direct Memory
+ Access**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_Direct_Memory_Access) is
+ a concept whereby two or more computers communicate via DMA directly
+ from main memory of one system to the main memory of another.
+* RFC - Request for Comment
+* RFI - [**Radio-Frequency
+ Interference**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_interference)
+* RGB - Red, Green, Blue
+* RISC - Reduced Instruction Set Computer
+* RMA - Return Merchandise Authorization
+* RO - Read Only
+* ROM - Read Only Memory
+* RoT - Root of Trust
+* RPL - Intel: [**Raptor Lake**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raptor_Lake)
+* RRG - AMD (ATI): Register Reference Guide
+* RSDP - Root System Description Pointer
+* RTC - Real Time Clock
+* RTFM - Read the Fucking Manual
+* RTOS - Real-Time Operating System
+* RVP - Intel: Reference Validation Platform
+* RW - Read / Write
+* RX - Receive
+
+
+## S
+
+* S-states - ACPI System Power States: [**Sleep states**](https://uefi.org/specs/ACPI/6.4/16_Waking_and_Sleeping/sleeping-states.html)
+* S0 - ACPI System Power State: Fully running
+* S0 - S5 - ACPI System power states level 0 - 5, with each higher
+ numbered power state being (theoretically) lower power than the
+ previous, and (again theoretically) taking longer to get back to a
+ fully running system than the previous.
+* S1 - ACPI System Power State: Standby - This isn’t use much anymore,
+ but it used to put the Processor into a powered, but idle state, power
+ down any drives, and turn off the display. This would wake up almost
+ instantly because no processor context was lost in this state.
+* S2 - ACPI System Power State: Lower power than S1, Higher power than
+ S3, I don’t know that this state was ever well defined by any group.
+* S3 - ACPI System Power State: Suspend to RAM - A low-power state where
+ the processor context is copied to the system Memory, then the
+ processor and all peripherals are powered off. On wake, or resume,
+ the system starts to boot normally, then switches to restore the
+ memory registers to the previous settings, restore the processor
+ context from memory, and jump back to the operating system to pick up
+ where it left off.
+* S4 - ACPI System Power State: Suspend to Disk. The processor context
+ and all the contents of memory are copied to the hard drive. This is
+ typically fully handled by the operating system, so resume is a normal
+ boot through all of the firmware, then the OS restore the original
+ contents of memory. Any critical processor state is restored.
+* S5 - ACPI System Power State: System is “completely powered off”, but
+ still has power going to the board.
+* SAR - The [**Specific Absorption
+ Rate**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_absorption_rate) is the
+ measurement for the amount of Radio Frequency (RF) energy absorbed by
+ the body in units of Watts per Kilogram. This may be built into
+ coreboot as a table.
+* SAS - Serial Attached SCSI - A serialized version of SCSI used mostly
+ for high performance hard drives and tape drives.
+* SATA - Serial Advanced Technology Attachment
+* SB - South Bridge
+* SB-RMI - AMD: Sideband Remote Management Interface
+* SB-TSI - SideBand Temperature Sensor Interface
+* SBA - SideBand Addressing
+* SBI - SideBand Interface
+* SBOM - Software Bill of Materials
+* SCI - System Control Interrupt
+* SCP - ARM: System Control Processor
+* SCP - Network Protocol: Secure Copy
+* SCSI - Small Computer System Interface - A high-bandwidth
+ communication interface for peripherals. This is a very old interface
+ that has seen numerous updates and is still used today, primarily in
+ SAS (Serial Attached SCSI). The initial version is now often referred
+ to as Parallel SCSI.
+* SD - [**Secure Digital**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SD_card) card
+* SDRAM - Synchronous DRAM
+* SDLE: AMD: Stardust Dynamic Load Emulator
+* SEEP - Serial EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only
+ Memory)
+* SEV - AMD: Secure Encrypted Virtualization
+* Shadow RAM - RAM which content is copied from ROM residing at the same
+ address for speedup purposes.
+* Shim - A small piece of code whose only purpose is to act as an
+ interface to load another piece of code.
+* SIMD - Single Instruction, Multiple Data
+* SIMM - Single Inline Memory Module
+* SIPI - Startup Inter Processor Interrupt
+* SIO - [**Super I/O**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_I/O)
+* SKL - Intel: SkyLake
+* SKU - Stock Keeping Unit
+* SMART: [**Self-Monitoring Analysis And Reporting
+ Technology**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.)
+* SMBIOS - [**System Management
+ BIOS**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Management_BIOS)
+* SMBus - [**System Management
+ Bus**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Management_Bus)
+ * [http://www.smbus.org/](http://www.smbus.org/
+* SMI - System management interrupt
+* SMM - [**System management
+ mode**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Management_Mode)
+* SMN - AMD: System Management Network
+* SMRAM - System Management RAM
+* SMT - Simultaneous Multithreading
+* SMT - Surface Mount
+* SMT - Symmetric Multithreading
+* SNP - AMD: Secure Nested Paging
+* SMU - AMD: System Management Unit
+* SO-DIMM: Small Outline Dual In-Line Memory Module
+* SoC - System on a Chip
+* SOIC - [**Small-Outline Integrated
+ Circuit**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small-outline_integrated_circuit)
+* SPD - [**Serial Presence
+ Detect**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_presence_detect)
+* SPI - [**Serial Peripheral
+ Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Peripheral_Interface)
+* SPL - AMD: Security Patch Level
+* SPMI - MIPI: System Power Management Interface
+* SRAM - Static Random Access Memory
+* SSD - Solid State Drive
+* SSDT - Secondary System Descriptor Table - ACPI table
+* SSE - Streaming SIMD Extensions
+* SSH - Network Protocol: Secure Shell
+* SSI - **Server System Infrastructure**
+* SSI-CEB - Physical board format: [**SSI Compact Electronics
+ Bay**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSI_CEB)
+* SSI-EEB - Physical board format: [**SSI Enterprise Electronics
+ Bay**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSI_CEB) is a wider version of
+ ATX with different standoff placement.
+* SSI-MEB - Physical board format: [**SSI Midrange Electronics
+ Bay**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSI_CEB)
+* SSI-TEB - Physical board format: [**SSI Thin Electronics
+ Bay**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSI_CEB)
+* STAPM - AMD: Skin Temperature Aware Power Management
+* SuperIO - The [**Super I/O**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_I/O)
+ (SIO) device provides a system with any of a number of different
+ peripherals. Most common are: A PS/2 Keyboard and mouse port, LPT
+ Ports, UARTS, Watchdog Timers, Floppy drive Controllers, GPIOs, or any
+ of a number of various other devices.
+* SVI2/3 - Serial VID (Voltage Identification) Interface 2.0 / 3.0
+
+
+## T
+
+* TBT - Thunderbolt
+* TBT - Intel: Turbo Boost Technology
+* TCC - Intel: Thermal Control Circuit
+* TCP - Transmission Control Protocol
+* TCPC - Type C Port Controller
+* TCSS - Intel: Type C SubSystem
+* TDMA - Time-Division Multiple Access
+* TDP - [**Thermal Design
+ Power**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_design_power)
+* TEE - Trusted Execution Environment
+* TFTP - Network Protocol: Trivial File Transfer Protocol
+* TGL - Intel: Tigerlake
+* THC - Touch Host Controller
+* Ti50 - Google: The next generation GSC (Google Security chip) on
+ Chrome OS devices after Cr50
+* TLA - Techtronics Logic Analyzer
+* TLA - Three Letter Acronym
+* TLB - [**Translation Lookside
+ Buffer**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation_lookaside_buffer)
+* TOCTOU - Time-Of-Check to Time-Of-Use
+* TOLUM - Top of Low Usable Memory
+* ToM - Top of Memory
+* TPM - Trusted Platform Module
+* TS - TimeStamp -
+* TSC - [**Time Stamp
+ Counter**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Stamp_Counter)
+* TSEG - TOM (Top of Memory) Segment
+* TWAIN - Technology without an interesting name.
+* TX - Transmit
+* TXE - Intel: Trusted eXecution Engine
+
+
+## U
+
+* UART - Universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter
+* UC - UnCacheable. Memory type setting in MTRR/PAT.
+* uCode - [**Microcode**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcode)
+* UDK - UEFI: UEFI Development Kit
+* UDP - User Datagram Protocol
+* UEFI - Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
+* UFS - Universal Flash storage
+* UHCI - USB: [**Universal Host Controller
+ Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_controller_interface_%28USB%2C_Firewire%29%23UHCI)
+ - Intel proprietary USB 1.x Host controller
+* Unreal mode - Real mode running in a way that allows it to access the
+ entire 4GiB of the 32-bit address space - Also known as Big real mode
+ or Flat mode.
+* UMA - Unified Memory Architecture
+* UMI - AMD: [**Unified Media
+ Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Media_Interface)
+* UPD - Updatable Product Data
+* UPS - Uninterruptible Power Supply
+* USART - Universal Synchronous/Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter
+* USB - Universal Serial Bus
+
+
+## V
+
+* VBIOS - Video BIOS
+* VBNV - Vboot Non-Volatile storage
+* VBT - [**Video BIOS
+ Table**](https://01.org/linuxgraphics/gfx-docs/drm/ch04s02.html#id-1.4.3.4.16)
+* VESA - Video Electronics Standards Association
+* VGA: Video Graphics Array
+* VID: Vendor Identifier
+* VID: AMD: Voltage Identifier
+* VLB - VESA Local Bus
+* VOIP - Voice over IP
+* Voodoo mode - a silly name for Big Real mode.
+* VPD - Vital Product Data
+* VPN - Virtual Private Network
+* VR - Voltage Regulator
+* VRAM - Video Random Access Memory
+* VRM - Voltage Regulator Module
+* VT-d - Intel: Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O
+
+
+## W
+
+* WAN - [**Wide Area Network**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_area_network)
+* WB - Cache Policy: [**Write-Back**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache_%28computing%29)
+* WC - Cache Policy: [**Write-Combining**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache_%28computing%29)
+* WCAM - World-facing Camera - A camera on a device that is not intended
+ to be used as a webcam, but instead to film scenes away from the user.
+ For clamshell devices, his may be on the keyboard panel for devices
+ devices that open 360 degrees, or on the outside of the cover. For
+ tablets, it's on the the side away from the screen.
+* WDT - [**WatchDog Timer**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchdog_timer)
+* WLAN - Wireless LAN (Local Area Network)
+* WP - Cache policy: [**Write-Protected**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache_%28computing%29)
+* WO - Write-only
+* WOL - [**Wake-on-LAN**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake-on-LAN)
+* WT - Cache Policy: [**Write Through**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache_%28computing%29)
+
+
+## X
+
+* x64 - Another name for [**x86-64**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64) or AMD64.
+* x86 - [**x86**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86) Originally referred to any device compatible with the 8088/8086
+ architectures, this now typically means compatibility with the 80386
+ 32-bit instruction set (also referred to as IA-32)
+* x86-64 - The 64-bit extension to the x86 architecture. Also known as
+ [**AMD64**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64) as it was developed by AMD. Long-mode refers to when the
+ processor is running in the 64-bit mode.
+* XBAR - AMD: Abbreviation for crossbar, their command packet switch
+ which determines what data goes where within the processor or SoC
+* XHCI - USB: [**Extensible Host Controller Interface**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Host_Controller_Interface) - USB Host controller
+ supporting 1.x, 2.0, and 3.x devices.
+
+
+
+## Y
+
+
+## Z
+
+* ZIF - Zero Insertion Force
+
+
+## References:
+* [AMD Glossary of terms](https://www.amd.com/system/files/documents/glossary-of-terms-20220505-for-web.pdf)
diff --git a/Documentation/index.md b/Documentation/index.md
index 7938a7ff66..ac900607ad 100644
--- a/Documentation/index.md
+++ b/Documentation/index.md
@@ -191,4 +191,5 @@ Contents:
* [Project infrastructure & services](infrastructure/index.md)
* [Boards supported in each release directory](releases/boards_supported_on_branches.md)
* [Release notes](releases/index.md)
+* [Acronyms & Definitions](acronyms.md)
* [Documentation License](documentation_license.md)