DS-CAL
SOFTWARE USER MANUAL
11. Appendix B: Glossary and abbreviations
dB
The decibel (dB) is a logarithmic unit that indicates the ratio of a physical quantity (usually power or
intensity) relative to a specified or implied reference level. A ratio in decibels is ten times the logarithm
to base 10 of the ratio of two power quantities.
Dewesoft
Dewesoft refers to the company. DEWESoft™ refers to the software suite for data acquisition, data
processing, data analysis and much more. See www.dewesoft.com.
DMM
Refers to the digital multimeter (for example the Agilent 34410A).
Dynamic Range
Dynamic Range is the ratio of a specified full scale input range to the minimum detectable value (peak
spurious signal). The value for dynamic range is expressed in decibels (dB).
GND
The electrical ground (or earth).
Microsoft®
Microsoft® Corporation is a public multinational corporation head quartered in Redmond, Washington,
USA, that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services
predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions.
DEWESoft™ is a Windows® based application and thus a Windows® operating system must be
installed on the measurement PC where DEWESoft™ is installed. See www.microsoft.com.
OS
An operating system (OS) is a set of system software running on a device that manages the system
hardware. This may refer to the operating system of a PC (Windows is required for DEWESoft™) or to
the operating system of the SIRIUS system.
PPS
A pulse per second (PPS) is an electrical signal that has a width of less than one second and a sharply
rising or abruptly falling edge that accurately repeats once per second. PPS signals are output by radio
beacons, frequency standards, other types of precision oscillators and some GPS receivers.
PC
A personal computer. SIRIUS systems are typically connected to a personal computer which runs
DEWESoft™ to fetch the measurement data.
SNR
Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) is the ratio of the RMS value of the full scale input range to the total RMS
noise measured with the inputs shorted together. The value for SNR is expressed in decibels (dB).
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