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Glossary

Mayank Kumar edited this page Nov 14, 2019 · 1 revision

Sometimes terminology or jargon can be confusing and overwhelming. The following is a nifty list of key terminologies employed in the entire repository wiki.

Software

This section is related to various software terminologies.

System Integrity Protection or SIP

Refers to a security feature introduced in macOS El Capitan (10.11) that prevents modifications of system files even for system administrators/owners. This feature needs to be disabled for this script to function.

Kernel Extension or Kext

A kernel extension can be thought of as a "driver" that is a very important program to ensure that the software can interface with the hardware and essentially run. This script patches kernel extensions.

Administrator Privilege

This script asks for your password to begin execution. This means that the script is requesting administrator or superuser privileges. Combined with SIP disabled, this ensures that the script executes as an administrator to modify system files such as kernel extensions.

Hardware

This section is related to hardware terminology such as GPUs.

Discrete GPU

A discrete or dedicated graphics processing unit (GPU) is typically referred to a GPU installed inside a notebook specifically for higher performance needs and workloads. These GPUs are independent of the CPU and consume more power to provide higher performance. Most laptop CPUs come with their own low-power integrated GPUs.

Integrated GPU

An integrated graphics processing unit (GPU) refers to GPUs built into CPUs. This is typically the case with most notebooks. For example, the 2019 13-inch MacBook Pro comes with only an integrated GPU with its Intel CPU, no discrete chip.

eGPU

A very common abbreviation for "External GPU". It refers to a graphics processing unit (GPU) connected as a peripheral through any PCIe interface such as Thunderbolt - which is the only viable option for all Macs since 2011.

PCIe

Refers to the standard Peripheral Component Interconnect Express interface. Read more about it on wikipedia.

Thunderbolt

A technology jointed developed by Apple and Intel that provides PCIe lanes, audio/video output, and ethernet capabilities. It is one of the most versatile ports. Thunderbolt 3 is optionally built into USB-C. All MacBook Pros since 2016 have USB-C ports that have Thunderbolt 3.