Glossary
G-2
ni.com
A
A
Amperes—the
u
nit of electric c
u
rrent.
A/D
Analog-to-Digital. Most often
u
sed as A/D converter.
AC
Alternating c
u
rrent.
acc
u
racy
A meas
u
re of the capability of an instr
u
ment or sensor to faithf
u
lly indicate
the val
u
e of the meas
u
red signal. This term is not related to resol
u
tion;
however, the acc
u
racy level can never be better than the resol
u
tion of the
instr
u
ment.
ADE
Application development environment.
analog
A signal whose amplit
u
de can have a contin
u
o
u
s range of val
u
es.
analog inp
u
t signal
An inp
u
t signal that varies smoothly over a contin
u
o
u
s range of val
u
es,
rather than in discrete steps.
analog o
u
tp
u
t signal
An o
u
tp
u
t signal that varies smoothly over a contin
u
o
u
s range of val
u
es,
rather than in discrete steps.
analog trigger
A trigger that occ
u
rs at a
u
ser-selected point on an incoming analog signal.
Triggering can be set to occ
u
r at a specific level on either an increasing or
a decreasing signal (positive or negative slope). Analog triggering can be
implemented either in software or in hardware. When implemented in
software (LabVIEW), all data is collected, transferred into system memory,
and analyzed for the trigger condition. When analog triggering is
implemented in hardware, no data is transferred to system memory
u
ntil the
trigger condition has occ
u
rred.
application
A software program that creates an end-
u
ser f
u
nction.
arm
The process of getting an instr
u
ment ready to perform a f
u
nction. For
example, the trigger circ
u
itry of a digitizer is armed, meaning that it is
ready to start acq
u
iring data when an appropriate trigger condition is met.
ASIC
Application-specific integrated circ
u
it—A proprietary semicond
u
ctor
component designed and man
u
fact
u
red to perform a set of specific
f
u
nctions for a specific c
u
stomer.
