Owner's manual

Glossary
71
Glossary
A
Asynchronous (1) Hardware - A property of an event
that occurs at an arbitrary time,
without synchronization to a reference
clock.
(2) Software - A property of a function
that begins an operation and returns
prior to the completion or termination
of the operation.
B
Background Acquisition Data is acquired by a DAQ system
while another program or processing
routine is running without apparent
interruption.
Base Address A memory address that serves as the
starting address for programmable
registers. All other addresses are
located by adding to the base address.
Bit One binary digit, either 0 or 1.
Block-Mode A high-speed data transfer in which
the address of the data is sent
followed by a specified number of
back-to-back data words.
Burst-Mode A high-speed data transfer in which
the address of the data is sent
followed by back-to-back data words
while a physical signal is asserted.
Bus The group of conductors that
interconnect individual circuitry in a
computer. Typically, a bus is the
expansion vehicle to which I/O or other
devices are connected. Examples of PC
buses are the ATPCI Bus.