Glossary
G-6
ni.com
M
m
meters
M
(1) Mega, the standard metric prefix for 1 million or 10
6
, when used with
units of measure such as volts and hertz; (2) mega, the prefix for 1,048,576,
or 2
20
, when used with B to quantify data or computer memory
master/slave
locking the NI 5401 clock in frequency to an external phase locking
reference clock source
MB
megabytes of memory
N
noise
an undesirable electrical signal—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.
O
output enable relay
a relay switch at the output of the NI 5401 that can enable the waveform
generation at any time or that can connect the output to ground
P
passband
the range of frequencies which a device can properly propagate or measure
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 work-stations;
it offers a theoretical maximum transfer rate of 132 Mbytes/s.
PCLK
digital pattern clock output
peak-to-peak
a measure of signal amplitude; the difference between the highest and
lowest excursions of the signal