National Instruments 6023E User Manual
Page 117
Glossary
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DAQ
data acquisition—(1) collecting and measuring electrical signals from
sensors, transducers, and test probes or fixtures and processing the
measurement data using a computer; (2) collecting and measuring the same
kinds of electrical signals with A/D and/or DIO boards plugged into a
computer, and possibly generating control signals with D/A and/or DIO
boards in the same computer
dB
decibel—the unit for expressing a logarithmic measure of the ratio of two
signal levels: dB=20log10 V1/V2, for signals in volts
DC
direct current
DGND
digital ground signal
DIFF
differential input configuration
differential amplifier
an amplifier with two input terminals, neither of which are tied to a ground
reference, whose voltage difference is amplified
differential input
the two-terminal input to a differential amplifier
DIO
digital input/output
dithering
the addition of Gaussian noise to an analog input signal
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 LSB of the worst-case deviation of
code widths from their ideal value of 1 LSB
DO
digital output
drivers/driver software
software that controls a specific hardware device such as a DAQ device
E
EEPROM
electrically erasable programmable read-only memory—ROM that can be
erased with an electrical signal and reprogrammed. Some SCXI modules
contain an EEPROM to store measurement-correction coefficients.