Basics Of LABVIEW:

DAQ and Other Data Acquisition Acronyms

"Let's go ahead and apply CASE tools and UML to designing the PCI interface using that new XML standard." Admit it, how many times has someone mentioned an acronym in a technical discussion and everyone pretends to understand because nobody wants to ask what it stands for and look ignorant? Well, here's your chance to see what all the acronyms in this chapter stand for and where they came from. Use this list to put your colleagues to the test! AC: Alternating Current. This acronym originally referred to how a device was powered, with AC being the plug in the wall and DC (direct current) being batteries. Now it's used more generally to refer to any kind of signal (not just current) that varies "rapidly" (whatever you want that to mean) with time. AC/DC: A rockin' Aussie band. (Rock historians will note that the band was founded by two Scottish brothers, Angus and Malcom Young, who immigrated to Australia ten years prior to forming the band.) ADC: or A/D Analog-to-Digital Conversion. This conversion takes a real-world analog signal, and converts it to a digital form (as a series of bits) that the computer can understand. Many times the chip used to perform this operation is called "the ADC." DAQ: Data AcQuisition. This little phrase just refers to collecting data in general, usually by performing an A/D conversion. Its meaning is sometimes expanded to include, as in this book, data generation. Don't confuse DAQ and DAC, which sound the same when pronounced in English. (DAC, or D/A, stands for Digital-to-Analog Conversion, usually referring to the chip that does this.) DC: Direct Current. The opposite of AC. No longer refers to current specifically. Sometimes people use DC to mean a constant signal of zero frequency. In other cases, such as in DAQ terminology, DC also refers to a very low-frequency signal, such as something that varies less than once a second. DMA: Direct Memory Access. You can use plug-in DAQ devices that have built-in DMA, or buy a separate DMA board. DMA lets you throw the data you're acquiring directly into the computer's RAM (there we go, another acronym), thus increasing data transfer speed. Without DMA, you still acquire data into memory, but it takes more steps and more time because the software has to direct it there.