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Glossary
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National Instruments Corporation
G-5
differential
measurement system
a way you can configure your device to read signals, in which you do not
need to connect either input to a fixed reference, such as the earth or a
building ground
digital trigger
a TTL level signal having two discrete levels—a high and a low level
DMA
direct memory access—a method by which data can be transferred to/from
computer memory from/to a device or memory on the bus while the
processor does something else. DMA is the fastest method of transferring
data to/from computer memory.
DNL
differential nonlinearity—a measure in LSBs of the worst-case deviation
of code widths from their ideal value of 1 LSB
down counter
performing frequency division on an internal signal
drivers
software that controls a specific hardware device such as a DAQ device
or a GPIB interface device
DSA
dynamic signal acquisition
dynamic range
the ratio of the largest signal level a circuit can handle to the smallest signal
level it can handle (usually taken to be the noise level), normally expressed
in decibels
E
EEPROM
electrically erasable programmable read-only memory—ROM that can be
erased with an electrical signal and reprogrammed
event
the condition or state of an analog or digital signal
external trigger
a voltage pulse from an external source that triggers an event such as
A/D conversion