| Term | Description |
| E-zine | Electronic Magazines are short online journals written for the Internet that take advantage of the low publishing cost of the World Wide Web. |
| Easter Egg | Programmers sometimes put pieces of code into an application that produce unexpected surprises. Users usually won't see them unless they press a certain key combination. They're usually found by word of mouth and rarely by accident. |
| Edge Connector | Found along one side of an expansion card, the little metal connectors that transmit data and other signals to your computer through the bus slot that it fits into. |
| EDO RAM | Extended Data Out RAM. A type of DRAM that can be 10% to 20% faster than normal DRAM if no external cache is used. EDO keeps its chip output buffer open longer and can begin to access more data even before its done reading the previous data. Not much of a speed increase is noticed over Fast Page Mode RAM if an external cache of 256K is present. Controller must be compatible or it will act like normal DRAM. |
| EEPROM | Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory. A type of ROM chip that can be electronically erased and reprogrammed in circuit using software. The introduction of EEPROM allowed expansion devices to be configured using software instead of jumpers and DIP switches. |
| EGA | Enhanced Graphics Adapter. A high resolution video card that came out after CGA. It was manufactured by IBM and could produce a resolution of 640 X 350 pixels and display 16 colors out of a palette of 64. |
| EIDE | Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics. Improved version of the IDE interface for hard drives and CD-ROMs. EIDE uses Logical Block Addressing which allows for HD capacities over 528 MB. It makes use of Direct Memory Access and can address up to four devices. Also called Fast ATA. |
| EISA | Extended Industry Standard Architecture. The standard for an IBM compatible computer data bus that can transfer 32 bits of data at a time. Extended ISA was developed in response to IBM's proprietary Micro Channel Architecture bus (MCA). Unlike MCA, it was backwards compatible with the older 16 bit ISA bus. |
| Electrostatic Discharge | See ESD. |
| EMM386.EXE | A DOS Extended Memory Manager utility that provides access to upper memory blocks and can use Extended Memory to emulate Expanded Memory for the older DOS programs that require it. |
| Energy Star Systems | Systems that satisfy the EPA requirements to decrease the overall consumption of electricity. "Green Systems". |
| Enhanced BIOS | A newer BIOS that has been written to accommodate larger-capacity (gigabyte) drives. |
| Enhanced Graphics Adapter | See EGA. |
| EPROM | Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory. A type of PROM chip that can be removed from the circuit and erased using ultraviolet light. The chip can then be re-programmed using an EPROM burner. |
| ESD | Electrostatic Discharge is the discharge of built up static electricity. You may not even feel the discharge but ESD can damage chips and ruin motherboards, rendering your computer useless. |
| Expansion Card | An electronic circuit board that fits into a slot on your motherboard expanding the capabilities of your computer. i.e.: video card, internal modem, sound card. |
| Expansion Slot | A connector or slot on your computers motherboard that allows for the insertion of an expansion card, connecting it to the systems bus or electronic pathways. |
| Extended Data Out RAM | See EDO RAM. |
| Extended Graphics Array | See XGA. |
| Extended Memory | See XMS. |
| Extended Technology | See XT. |