Glossary
NI 2501/2503 User Manual G-2
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National Instruments Corporation
bus the group of conductors that interconnect individual circuitry in a computer.
Typically, a bus is the expansion vehicle to which I/O or other devices are
connected. Examples of PC buses are the ISA and PCI bus.
C
C Celsius
channel pin or wire lead on the multiplexer to which you apply or from which you
read the analog or digital signal. Signals can be single-ended or differential.
cold-junction
compensation a method of compensating for inaccuracies in thermocouple circuits
contact bounce the intermittent switching that occurs when the movable metal parts of a
relay make or break contact
D
DC direct current
debounced indicates when the contact bounce has ended. See contact bounce.
device a plug-in board, card, or pad that can contain multiple channels and
conversion devices. Some examples of devices are computers,
multimeters, multiplexers, oscillators, operator interfaces, and
counters.
digital multimeter a multifunction meter used to make measurements such as voltage, current,
resistance frequency, temperature, and so on
DIN Deutsche Industrie Norme
DMA direct memory access—a method by which data can be transferred to/from
computer memory from/to a device or memory on the bus while the
processor does something else. DMA is the fastest method of transferring
data to/from computer memory.
DMM See digital multimeter.
drivers/driver software software that controls a specific hardware device such as a switch card