When unusual abbreviations appear in this developer note, the corresponding terms are also spelled out. Standard units of measure and other widely used abbreviations are not spelled out.
Here are the standard units of measure used in developer notes:
| A | amperes | mA | milliamperes |
| dB | decibels | A | microamperes |
| GB | gigabytes | MB | megabytes |
| Hz | hertz | MHz | megahertz |
| in. | inches | mm | millimeters |
| k | 1000 | ms | milliseconds |
| K | 1024 | s | microseconds |
| KB | kilobytes | ns | nanoseconds |
| kg | kilograms | sec. | seconds |
| kHz | kilohertz | V | volts |
| k | kilohms | W | watts |
| lb. | pounds |
Other abbreviations used in developer notes include these:
| ADM | Apple drive module |
| AGP | accelerated graphicsport |
| ATA | advanced technology attachment |
| ATAPI | advanced technology attachment, packet interface |
| CAS | column address strobe |
| CD-ROM | compact disc read-only memory |
| CLI | command line interface |
| DBDMA | descriptor-based direct memory access |
| DDR | double data rate, a type of SDRAM |
| DIMM | dual inline memory module |
| DMA | direct memory access |
| DRAM | dynamic random-access memory |
| EDO | extended data out DRAM device type |
| EIDE | extended IDE |
| EMI | electromagnetic interference |
| FTP | file transfer protocol |
| G4 | Generation 4, the fourth generation of PowerPC microprocessors, incorporating AltiVec technology |
| GUI | graphic user interface |
| HID | human interface device, a class of USB devices |
| I2C | same as IIC |
| IIS | same as IIS |
| IC | integrated circuit |
| IDE | integrated device electronics |
| IEEE | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |
| IEEE 1274 | the official specification for Open Firmware |
| IEEE 1394a | the official specification for FireWire 400 |
| IEEE 1394b | the official specification for FireWire 800 |
| IIC | inter-IC (an internal control bus) |
| IIS | inter-IC sound bus |
| I/O | input/output |
| ISO | International Organization for Standardization |
| JEDEC | Joint Electronics Devices Engineering Council |
| KVM | K Virtual Machine |
| L2 | level 2 (refers to level of cache) |
| L3 | level 3 (refers to level of cache) |
| LAN | local area network |
| MAC | media access controller |
| Mac OS | Macintosh Operating System |
| MIB | management infomation base |
| MOSSA | Mac OS Service Administrator |
| MPI | message passing interface |
| PCI | Peripheral Component Interconnect |
| PDC | primary domain controller |
| PHY | physical layer |
| PIO | polled input/output |
| RADIUS | Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service |
| RAID | redundant array of inexpensive drives |
| RAM | random-access memory |
| RAS | row address strobe |
| RBC | reduced block commands |
| RGB | a video signal format with separate red, green, and blue components |
| RISC | reduced instruction set computing |
| rms | root mean square |
| ROM | read-only memory |
| RS-232 | standard serial interface |
| RS-422 | standard serial interface |
| SBP | Serial Bus Protocol |
| SPD | Serial Presence Detect |
| SCSI | Small Computer System Interface |
| SCC | serial communications controller |
| SNMP | simple network management protocol |
| SDRAM | synchronous dynamic random access memory |
| SRAM | static random access memory |
| UPS | uninterruptible power supply |
| USB | Universal Serial Bus |
| TMDS | transition minimized differential signaling |
| VRAM | video RAM; used for display buffers |