National Instruments NI 4050 P, R

Glossary

PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect—a high-performance expansion bus

architecture originally developed by Intel to replace ISA and EISA; it is

achieving widespread acceptance as a standard for PCs and workstations

and offers a theoretical maximum transfer rate of 132 Mbytes/s

peak value the absolute maximum or minimum amplitude of a signal (AC + DC)

PXI PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation. PXI is an open specification that

builds off the CompactPCI specification by adding

instrumentation-specific features.

Rresistor

RAM random-access memory

range error an error in accuracy that is determined by the input range that is selected.

The range error is independent of the value of the signal being measured.

reading error an error in accuracy that is determined by the input range, as well as the

value being measured

reading rate the rate at which a new measurement is taken. In addition to the

measurement speed, the selection of the reading rate affects the filtering,

and thus the noise level, of measurements.

resolution the smallest signal increment that can be detected by a measurement

system. Resolution can be expressed in bits or in digits. The number of bits

in a system is roughly equal to 3.3 times the number of digits.

rms root mean square—a measure of signal amplitude; the square root of the

average value of the square of the instantaneous signal amplitude

ROM read-only memory

Rsense the sense resistor. The voltage across this resistor is measured and

converted to a current.