N

NDIS

Network Driver Interface Specification. The interface for network drivers used in Windows and Windows NT/Windows 2000. NDIS provides transport independence for network vendors because all transport drivers call the NDIS interface to access the network.

NetPC

Network PC. A PC designed to meet the industry specification for Network PC systems, which optimizes PC design for flexibility and manageability in order to reduce the total cost of ownership.

nibble mode

An asynchronous, peripheral-to-host channel defined in the IEEE 1284-1944 standard. Provides a channel for the peripheral to send data to the host, which is commonly used as a means of identifying the peripheral.

NMI

Nonmaskable Interrupt. An interrupt that cannot be overruled by another service request. A hardware interrupt is called nonmaskable if it bypasses and takes priority over interrupt requests generated by software, the keyboard, and other devices.

non-interlaced

The method of scanning all lines on a display from top to bottom in sequential order at a specific rate per second. Unlike television, which uses an interlaced scanning method, computers typically use non-interlaced monitors.

NSP

Native signal processing.

NTFS

Windows NT/Windows 2000 file system. An advanced file system designed for use specifically with the Windows NT/Windows 2000 operating system. NTFS supports file system recovery and extremely large storage media, in addition to other advantages.

NTKERN

The Windows 9x version of the kernel component in Windows NT/Windows 2000.

NTSC

National Television System Committee of the Electronics Industries Association (EIA). The standards-setting body for television and video in the United States. Sponsor of the NTSC standard for encoding color, a coding system compatible with black-and-white signals and the first system used for color broadcasting in the United States. The broadcast standard for the United States and Japan. See also PAL format and SECAM.

NTSC format

A color-television format having 525 scan lines, a field frequency of 60 Hz, a broadcast bandwidth of 4 MHz, line frequency of 15.75 KHz, frame frequency of 1/30 of a second, and a color subcarrier frequency of 3.58 MHz. See also PAL format and SECAM.