Kilobyte (Kb)

A measure of the capacity of a storage device that is usually written as Kb. A Kb is equal to 1,024 bytes. If you want to check the size of a file, highlight the file name in Program Manager in Windows. The size of the file is displayed after the file name. Although 1Kb is actually equal to 1,024 bytes, many people use to mean 1,000 bytes. The reason that 1Kb has 1,024 bytes is that it is equal to two to the power of 10- remember that PCs work in a binary, base 2.

Kermit

A communications protocol that allows you to transfer files between your computer and on-line network systems. Kermit has built-in error correction and can handle binary (non-text) files.

Key combination

A combination of two or more keys that carry out a function when pressed together. For example, the key combination Alt-S normally saves the file you are working on in any Windows program, and Alt-F4 will exit the program you are using .

Keyboard

On the keyboard each key is attached to a spring and a tiny electrical switch. When you press a key, the switch closes and sends a signal to the PC. In addition to the main characters, there is a row of 12 function keys along the top of the keyboard. These do different things according to the program you are using. The only standard is that F1 will normally display Help. If you hold down a key, the character appears once then, after a short delay, the character is repeated until you lift off the key.

KHz

1) A measure of the frequency of a sound. One KHz (or Kilohertz) is equal to 1,000 cycles per second. The higher the number, the higher pitched the sound. Normal speech has a very limited frequency range- mostly between 300Hz and 2.4KHz. music and other sounds can be heard at far higher lower frequencies.

2) You will also see KHz mentioned in the specification of a soundcard. This can define two separate functions. The first is the range of frequencies the soundcard can output. The second is the frequency at which the soundcard takes samples of a sound when recording it on to your disk. A soundcard looks at the level of a sound thousands of times each second and so builds up a picture of it. The more times it takes a sample, the more accurate the recording. The number of times the soundcard takes a sample per second is described in KHz. A good soundcard should cope with 22KHz or 44KHz samples.