Glossary
NI5620 User Manual G-6 ©NationalInstruments Corporation
N
noise an undesirableelectrical signal—Noise comes from external sources such
ast he ACpower line, motors, generators, transformers, fluorescent lights,
solderingirons, CRT displays, computers, electrical storms, welders, radio
transmitters, and internal sources such as semiconductors, resistors, and
capacitors.N oise corrupts signals you are trying to send or receive.
O
Ohm’sLaw (R=V/I)—therelationship of voltage to current in a resistance
onboard memory the devicememory. Onboard memory is distinct from computer memory.
overrange asegment of the input range of an instrument outside of the normal
measuring range. Measurements can still be made, usually with a
degradationin specifications.
P
PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect—a high-performance expansion bus
architecture originally developedby Intel to replace ISA and EISA; it is
achievingwidespread acceptance as a standard for PCs and workstations
and offersa theoretical maximum transfer rate of 132 Mbytes/s
peakvalue theabsolute maximum or minimum amplitude of a signal (AC + DC)
PFI Programmable Function Input
PLL phase-lockedloop
PXI PCIeXtensions for Instrumentation. PXI is an open specification that
buildson the CompactPCI specification by adding instrumentation-specific
features.
R
Rresistor
RAM random-access memory