User manual

Glossary98

4 Glossary

Callback. A mechanism that the PicoScope 6000 driver uses to communicate

asynchronously with your application. At design time, you add a function (a callback

function) to your application to deal with captured data. At run time, when you

request captured data from the driver, you also pass it a pointer to your function. The

driver then returns control to your application, allowing it to perform other tasks until

the data is ready. When this happens, the driver calls your function in a new thread to

signal that the data is ready. It is then up to your function to communicate this fact to

the rest of your application.

Device Manager. A Windows program that displays the current hardware

configuration of your computer. Right-click My Computer, choose Properties, then

click the Hardware tab and the Device Manager button.

Driver. A program that controls a piece of hardware. The driver for the PicoScope

6000 Series oscilloscopes is supplied in the form of a 32-bit Windows DLL,

ps6000.dll. This is used by the PicoScope software, and by user-designed

applications, to control the oscilloscopes.

PC Oscilloscope. A virtual instrument formed by connecting a PicoScope 6000 Series

oscilloscope to a computer running the PicoScope software.

PicoScope 6000 Series. A range of PC Oscilloscopes from Pico Technology. The

common features include 5 GS/s maximum sampling rate and 8-bit resolution. The

scopes are available with a range of buffer sizes up to 2 GS.

PicoScope software. A software product that accompanies all Pico PC Oscilloscopes.

It turns your PC into an oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer.

PRBS (pseudo-random binary sequence). A very long, fixed, repeating sequence

of binary digits that appears random when analyzed over a time shorter than the

repeat period. The waveform swings between two values: logic high (binary 1) and

logic low (binary 0).

USB 1.1. Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a standard port that enables you to connect

external devices to PCs. A USB 1.1 port uses signaling speeds of up to 12 megabits

per second, much faster than an RS-232 port.

USB 2.0. The second generation of USB interface. The port supports a data transfer

rate of up to 480 megabits per second.

USB 3.0. A USB 3.0 port uses signaling speeds of up to 5 gigabits per second and is

backwards-compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1.