Glossary
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National Instruments Corporation
G-5
N
NI-488 or NI-488.2
The National Instruments software for GPIB systems
NI-DAQ
The National Instruments software for data acquisition instruments
NI-VISA
The National Instruments implementation of the VISA standard; an
interface-independent software that provides a unified programming
interface for VXI, GPIB, and serial instruments
NMI
Non-maskable interrupt; high-priority interrupt that cannot be disabled by
another interrupt. It is used to report malfunctions such as parity, bus and
math coprocessor errors.
P
PCI
Peripheral Component Interconnect. The PCI bus is a high-performance
32-bit or 64-bit bus with multiplexed address and data lines.
PCMCIA
Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
peripheral
any hardware device connected to a computer, such as a monitor, keyboard,
printer, plotter, disk or tape drive, graphics tablet, scanner, mouse, and so on
POSC
Power On Self Configuration
PXI
PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation; an open implementation of
CompactPCI that adds electrical features that meet the high-performance
requirements of instrumentation applications by providing triggering, local
buses, and system clock capabilities. PXI also offers two-way
interoperability with CompactPCI products.
R
RAM
Random Access Memory; the computer’s primary workspace
RAMDAC
Random Access Memory Digital to Analog Converter; the VGA controller
chip that maintains the color palette and converts data from memory into
analog signals for the monitor
resource
hardware settings used by devices in a computer system, including ISA
interrupt level, DMA channel, and I/O address
