
Glossary
G-6
ni.com
MB
megabytes of memory
Mbytes/s
a unit for data transfer that means 2
20
or 1,048,576 bytes/s
Measurement &
Automation Explorer
(MAX)
a controlled centralized configuration environment that allows you to
configure all of your National Instruments DAQ, GPIB, IMAQ, IVI,
Motion, VISA, and VXI devices
N
NI-DAQ
National Instruments driver software for DAQ hardware
NIST
National Institute of Standards and Technology
NMR
normal mode rejection
noise
an undesirable signal—electrical noise comes from external sources such
as the AC power line, motors, generators, transformers, fluorescent lights,
soldering irons, CRT displays, computers, electrical storms, welders, radio
transmitters, and internal sources such as semiconductors, resistors, and
capacitors. Noise corrupts signals you are trying to send or receive.
NPN
type of bipolar transistor
NTC
negative temperature coefficient
O
operating system
base-level software that controls a computer, runs programs, interacts with
users, and communicates with installed hardware or peripheral instruments
P
PCI
Peripheral Component Interconnect—a high-performance expansion bus
architecture originally developed by Intel to replace ISA and EISA. It is
achieving widespread acceptance as a standard for PCs and workstations
and offers a theoretical maximum transfer rate of 132 Mbytes/s.
peak to peak
a measure of signal amplitude—the difference between the highest and
lowest excursions of the signal
PLC
power line cycles