This is a measure of the speed of a hard disk drive. The access time is equal to the seek time how long it takes the read/write arm to find a file on the hard disk platter plus the latency the amount of time it takes for the disk to spin the data around to the read/write head.

These are abbreviations for Analogue-to-Digital Converter. An Analogue-to-Digital Converter converts analogue audio into a stream of ones and zeros, referred to as binary digits or bits.

As used on the popular Alesis ADAT recorders, this format is increasingly to be found in DAW interfaces and compact digital mixers such as the Mark of the Unicorn 2408 and the Yamaha 02R, as well as on popular digital I/O cards for personal computers such as the Korg 1212. Sometimes called lightpipe , this carries eight channels of digital audio on a single fibre-optic cable. Each channel works at 44.1 or 48 kHz with up to 24-bit resolution with 64 bits of sub-code information available. However, particular devices may be restricted to 20- or even 16- bit resolution in practice. Cable lengths of up to 15 feet are possible. The ADAT format uses an embedded clock signal that provides the same functionality as standard word clock and the timing signal is also transmitted on a separate nine-pin sync cable. This sync cable also carries transport control commands.

ADAT recorders send and receive digital audio sync via their...