Glossary
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National Instruments Corporation
G-7
NI-FBUS Hardware and Software User Manual
M
Macrocycle
The least common multiple of all the loop times on a given link,
or one iteration of a the process control loop.
Manufacturer’s
identification
An identifier used to correlate the device type and revision with its
device description and device description revision.
Menu
An area accessible from the command bar that displays a subset of the
possible command choices. In the NI-FBUS Configurator, refers to
menus defined by the manufacturer for a given block.
Method
Methods describe operating procedures to guide a user through a
sequence of actions.
Mode
Type of communication.
N
Network address
The Fieldbus network address of a device.
Network Management
A layer of the F
OUNDATION
™
Fieldbus communication stack that
contains objects that other layers of the communication stack use,
such as Data Link, FAS, and FMS. You can read and write SM and
NM objects over the Fieldbus using FMS Read and FMS Write
services.
NI-FBUS API
The function calls provided by NI-FBUS Communication Manager.
NI-FBUS Communications
Manager
Software shipped with National Instruments Fieldbus interfaces that
lets you read and write values. It does not include configuration
capabilities.
NI-FBUS Configurator
National Instruments Fieldbus configuration software. With it, you
can set device addresses, clear devices, change modes, and read and
write to the devices.
NI-FBUS Fieldbus
Configuration System
See
NI-FBUS process
Process that must be running in the background for you to use your
NI-FBUS interface boards (USB-8486, PCMCIA-FBUS, or
PCI-FBUS) or Linking Devices (HSE-H1 Linking Device or
Controlnet-FF Linking Device) to communicate between the
application and Fieldbus.