Resource

A resource may refer to any of the following:

1. A resource is any hardware or software accessible by a computer, network, or another object connected to a computer. For example, a printer connected to a network is an example of a shared resource. Another example of a resource may be a network server farm or cluster that allows users to access multiple computers to perform complicated tasks.

2. With a computer, a resource or system resource is any of the internal computer components. Often this refers to the amount of available computer memory. For example, a program may report "low system resources," which indicates the computer is running low on available memory, and it may be necessary to close other programs open on the computer.

3. Hardware resources are device settings that allow it to communicate with the computer. The most common hardware resources are the DMA (direct memory access), I/O port, and IRQ (interrupt request). The picture below shows how hardware resources could be configured on a Sound Blaster sound card in Windows 98.

4. With gaming, a resource is a character's limited power that enables them to perform special actions. For example, with the mage class, their resource is "mana," which allows them to cast magical spells. See our mana page for further information and example of other class resources.

Hardware terms, Server Farm, Software terms, System requirements