Glossary
G-6
www.ni.com
noise
an undesirable electrical signal—Noise comes from external sources such
as AC power lines, 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 measure.
nonlinearity
For an amplifier, a measure of the maximum output deviation from an ideal
linear response in units of percent relative to full scale. The ideal linear
response is taken to be a straight line on a plot of measured output voltage
to measured input voltage with the ends of the line connecting the extremes
of the plot at the full-scale limits.
NRSE
nonreferenced single-ended mode—All measurements are made with
respect to a common measurement system reference, but the voltage at this
reference can vary with respect to the measurement system ground
O
offset error
the output of a system with a zero-volt input
P
parallel mode
a type of SCXI operating mode in which the module sends each of its
output channels directly to a separate analog input channel of the DAQ
device connected to the module
ppm
parts per million
PXI
PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation—An open specification that builds on
the CompactPCI specification by adding instrumentation-specific features.
R
resolution
the smallest signal increment that can be detected by a measurement
system. Resolution can be expressed in bits, in proportions, or in percent
of full scale. For example, a system has 12-bit resolution, one part in
4,096 resolution, and 0.0244% of full scale resolution.
rms
root mean square—The square root of the average value of the square of the
instantaneous signal amplitude; a measure of signal amplitude.
RSC
rear signal connector