Glossary
NI 4050 User Manual G-2 www.ni.com
ADC analog-to-digital converter—an electronic device, often an integrated
circuit, that converts an analog voltage to a digital number
ADC resolution the resolution of the ADC, which is measured in bits. An ADC with16 bits
has a higher resolution, and thus a higher degree of accuracy, than a
12-bitADC.
ADE Application Development Environment
amplification a type of signal conditioning that improves accuracy in the resulting
digitized signal and reduces noise
amplitude flatness a measure of how close to constant the gain of a circuit remains over a range
of frequencies
aperture time the period of time over which a measurement is averaged; also called the
number of powerline cycles
attenuate to reduce in magnitude
autozero technique of internally shorting the internal circuit while disconnecting the
measurement to compensate for temperature effects
Bb bit—one binary digit, either 0 or 1
B byte—eight related bits of data, an eight-bit binary number. Also used to
denote the amount of memory required to store one byte of data.
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 PCI and ISA bus.
burden voltage the voltage drop across the input section of the current mode
CC Celsius
CMRR common-mode rejection ratio—a measure of an instrument’s ability to
reject interference from a common-mode signal, usually expressed in
decibels (dB)