User`s guide

132 Agilent VISA User’s Guide
Glossary
attribute
In VISA and SICL, a value that indicates the operational state of a
resource. Some attributes can be changed; others are read-only.
board
A GPIB interface. It may be a physical board, an adapter (such as the
82357 USB/GPIB adapter), or a remote GPIB interface.
board descriptor
A handle, returned from ibfind, that uniquely identifies a GPIB
interface (board) in Agilent 488 original API calls. Also called an
interface descriptor or board unit descriptor.
board-level
Refers to Agilent 488 functions that operate on an interface (board),
rather than on a device.
bus error
An error that signals failure to access an address. Bus errors occur in
conjunction with low-level accesses to memory, and usually involve
hardware with bus mapping capabilities. Bus errors may be caused
by non-existent memory, a non-existent register, an incorrect device
access, etc.
bus error handler
Software that runs when a bus error occurs.
CIC
Controller in Charge.
command bytes
GPIB commands encoded as individual bytes. Also called GPIB
commands or interface messages.