B2000- The unofficial name of an upgraded A2000.

.Backdrop- A file found in the root directory of a device which contains information of all files left out on the workbench screen. Backdrop is also used to describe the main Workbench window.

BASIC- Beginners' All Symbolic Instruction Code.

BAUD- A measurement of the speed or transfer rate of a modem connection. This is measured in Bits Per Second (BPS).

BBS- Bulletin Board System- Another machine linked to a phone line from which can be downloaded software and send/receive messages.

BCPL- A predecessor to the programming language C++ that was used to program much of the original Amiga operating system.

BIG BOX- Any Amiga that was fitted in a desktop or tower case was known as a "Big box Amiga." This term was coined before Amiga owners began to "tower up" their A1200's and the word fell out of use. It was originally used to describe the A1000, A2000, A3000, and A4000.

BINDDRIVERS- A command located in the C: directory that is required for non-autoconfig hardware (Autoconfig is a better version of Plug and Play).

BINDMONITORS- A command stored in the C: directory that creates new graphic modes.

BITS- The smallest classification of the size of a file. There are 8 bits stored in a byte.

BITMAP FONT- A type of font used by many applications. The font is stored as a graphic and produces weird effects such as becoming blocky when altered in size.

BLANKER- The standard Amiga screen blanker that comes with Workbench. It is names because it "blanks" the screen; cutting down on the risk of still images damaging the monitor/TV.

BLITTER- A graphics engine that forms part of the Amigas custom chipset. It handles Block Image Transfer (BLITS). Also called a BIMMER (Bitmap IMage Manipulator). In slower Amigas (sub-68030) this is used to display most graphics, but is slower than using the CPU to display graphics in higher models.

BLIZZARD- A popular brand of A1200 accelerator cards made by Phase 5 for the A1200.

BLITZ BASIC- A powerful programming language that has more in common with C than basic. It has beaten AMOS in the popularity war with support for the AGA chipset.

BOOT- Starts the system through executing the Startup-sequence.

BOOT MENU- The menu screen that is activated on Kickstart 2/3 when you hold the two mouse buttons whilst the Amiga has just begun to boot a disk. This enables you select the chipset used, the drive to boot and a basic expansion diagnostic.

BREAK- A command stored in the C: directory that disables a script file that is being executed.

BRIDGEBOARD- An old Zorro expansion board developed by Commodore that contains an Intel processor for PC emulation. The only bridgeboard available at present is the GoldenGate Zorro card that allows the Amiga to use PC hardware, such as internal modems, if the driver software is available for it.

BROWSER- The application that allows you to access the internet using the World Wide Web. The most popular browsers on Amiga are Voyager-NG, IBrowse, and AWeb.

BRU- The official Commodore hard drive backup program.

BRUSH- A section of a picture that can be picked up and moved around with an art package.

BUBBLE JET PRINTER- This works in a similar way to Ink Jet printers, but instead heat the ink in the nozzle, which forms bubbles, and forces the ink out on to the page.

BUFFER- A memory cache that the Amiga uses to remember the contents of disks and hard drives to speed up access. To increase this you can use a PD utility such as PowerCache or put a line in your startup-sequence. By default the device DF0: is set to15 on boot up.

BUG- An error that makes a piece of hardware or software behave in a way that it should not, such as crashing the machine, eating your family, etc.

BUMP MAPPING- A process that shades a 2D object to make it look 3D.

BUSTER CHIP- A chip found in the A4000 designed to configure the Zorro III slots.

BUSY POINTER- An image that appears in place of the normal pointer to show that the Amiga is processing something and will not accept any other input.

BYTES- This is used to describe the size of a file. There are 1024 bytes in a kilobyte, 1024 kilobytes in a megabyte, 1024 megabytes in a gigabytes etc. Computers work according to binary maths (base two).

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