425
Section 11. Glossary
11.1 Terms
ac
SeeVac
(p.447).
accuracy
Ameasureofthecorrectnessofameasurement.Seealsotheappendix
Accuracy,Precision,andResolution
(p.449).
A/D
Analog‐to‐digitalconversion.Theprocessthattranslatesanalogvoltage
levelstodigitalvalues.
Amperes(Amps)
Baseunitforelectriccurrent.Usedtoquantifythecapacityofapower
sourceortherequirementsofapower‐consumingdevice.
analog
Datapresentedascontinuouslyvariableelectricalsignals.
argument
Seeparameter
(p.438).
ASCII/ANSI
AbbreviationforAmericanStandardCodeforInformationInterchange/
AmericanNationalStandardsInstitute.Anencodingschemeinwhich
numbersfrom0‐127(ASCII)or0‐255(ANSI)areusedtorepresentpre‐
definedalphanumericcharacters.Eachnumberisusuallystoredand
transmittedas8binarydigits(8bits),resulti
ngin1byteofstorageper
characteroftext.
asynchronous
Thetransmissionofdatabetweenatransmittingandareceivingdevice
occursasaseriesofzerosandones.Forthedatatobe"read"correctly,
thereceivingdevicemustbeginreadingattheproperpointinthe
series.Inasynchronouscommunication,thiscoordinationis
accomplishedbyhavingeachcharactersurr
oundedbyoneormore
startandstopbitswhichdesignatethebeginningandendingpointsof
theinformation(seesynchronous
(p.445)).