Glossary
NI-FBUS Hardware and Software User Manual
G-10
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Spur
A secondary route having a junction to the primary route in a
network.
Stack
A set of hardware registers or a reserved amount of memory used for
calculations or to keep track of internal operations.
Static library
A library of functions/subroutines that you must link to your
application as one of the final steps of compilation, as opposed to a
Dynamic Link Library, which links to your application at run time.
Stub
See
Spur.
Subscriber
A device that has at least one function block with its input value
connected to the output of another device.
Surge
Large, unwanted voltage or current on wires. Generally caused by
lightning or nearby heavy electrical power use.
Surge suppressor
A device used to discharge surges to ground.
Symbol file
A Fieldbus Foundation or device manufacturer-supplied file that
contains the ASCII names for all the objects in a device.
System Management
A layer of the F
OUNDATION
™
Fieldbus communication stack that
assigns addresses and physical device tags, maintains the function
block schedule for the function blocks in that device, and distributes
application time. You also can locate a device or a function block
tag through SM.
T
Tag
A name you can define for a block, virtual field device, or device.
Thread
An operating system object that consists of a flow of control within
a process. In some operating systems, a single process can have
multiple threads, each of which can access the same data space
within the process. However, each thread has its own stack and
all threads can execute concurrently with one another (either on
multiple processors, or by time-sharing a single processor).
Transducer block
A block that is an interface to the physical, sensing hardware in
the device. It also performs the digitizing, filtering, and scaling
conversions needed to present input data to function blocks, and
converts output data from function blocks. Transducer blocks
decouple the function blocks from the hardware details of a given
device, allowing generic indication of function block input and
output. Manufacturers can define their own transducer blocks.
