Glossary
Getting Started with Your PXI-8150 Series
G-4
© National Instruments Corporation
NI-VISA
The National Instruments implementation of the VISA standard; an
interface-independent software that provides a unified programming
interface for VXI, GPIB, and serial instruments
P
PCI
Peripheral Component Interconnect. The PCI bus is a high-performance
32-bit or 64-bit bus with multiplexed address and data lines.
peripheral
any hardware device connected to a computer, such as a monitor,
keyboard, printer, plotter, disk or tape drive, graphics tablet, scanner,
mouse, and so on
PXI
PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation; an open implementation of
CompactPCI that adds electrical features that meet the high-
performance requirements of instrumentation applications by providing
triggering, local buses, and system clock capabilities. PXI also offers
two-way interoperability with CompactPCI products.
R
RAM
Random Access Memory; the computer’s primary workspace
S
s
seconds
slave
A functional part of a PXI device that detects data transfer cycles
initiated by a PXI bus master and responds to the transfers when the
address specifies one of the device’s registers
SO-DIMM
Small Outline Dual In-line Memory Module
Star Trigger Slot
This slot is located at Slot 2 in a PXI mainframe and has a dedicated
trigger line between each peripheral slot. This slot would be used for a
module with ST functionality that can provide individual triggers to all
other peripherals.
