National Instruments VXI-USB User Manual

logical address

An 8-bit number that uniquely identifies each VXIbus device in a system. 
It defines the A16 register address of a device, and indicates Commander 
and Servant relationships.

m

meters

M

mega—(1) the standard metric prefix for 1 million or 10

6

, when used with 

units of measure such as volts and hertz; (2) the prefix for 1,048,576, or 2

20

, 

when used with B (byte) to quantify data or computer memory.

master

A functional part of a VME/VXIbus device that initiates data transfers on 
the backplane. A transfer can be either a read or a write.

message-based
device

An intelligent device that implements the defined VXIbus registers and 
communication protocols. These devices are able to use Word Serial 
Protocol to communicate with one another through communication 
registers.

MODID

Module ID lines—used in VXI to geographically locate boards and to 
dynamically configure boards.

MTBF

Mean Time Between Failure

MXI-3

A PCI Master/Slave system implementing the PCI-to-PCI Bridge register 
set. It couples two physically separate PCI buses with either a copper or 
fiber optic data link capable of 1.5 Gbits/s serial data rates.

NI-488.2 or
NI-488.2M

The National Instruments industry-standard software for controlling 
GPIB instruments.

NI-DAQ

The National Instruments industry-standard software for data acquisition 
instruments.

NI-VISA

The National Instruments implementation of the VISA standard; an 
interface-independent software that provides a unified programming 
interface for VXI, GPIB, and serial instruments.