Glossary of PC terms: T

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Termination	A procedure used to electrically end a SCSI cable and prevent reflections.  Passive termination is provided by resistors on the end of the cable. Active termination controls the impedance of the cable to provide better signals. Both types absorb the signal at the end of the cable, preventing it from bouncing back and causing noise.
Thin film disk	A substrate coated (typically) on both sides with the thin magnetic film and other performance-enhancing films.  Thin film technology replaced a Particulate media technology in magnetic hard disk drives. Also see Platter, Hard disk.
Thin film head	A read/write element made of thin layers of different materials using (typically) Physical Vapor Deposition process. See also Head, Read /Write element.
Thermal recalibration	A function used in older hard disk drives. During thermal recalibration, all operation of the drive are stopped, drives spins down, adjusts and fine tunes the position of the read/write element, and then resumes operation. This technology was replaced by Dedicated servo, and then by the Embedded servo.
TPI (tracks per inch)	A measure of density of magnetic recording. See also track density.
Track pitch	The distance between the centers of two adjacent tracks.
Track density	The density of data tracks measured in track per inch (TPI). See also linear (bit) density.
Tribology	A multi-disciplinary science about phenomena associated with the contact and relative motion of solids.  Phenomena include wear, friction, chemical reaction, fatigue, etc.  Tribology provides wear protection via lubrication, coating, material structure optimization, etc. Tribological performance of the head/disk interface is a key issue in the hard disk drives, floppy drives, magnetic tape drives, removable magnetic storage, etc.

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