MIDIbox - dictionary

4-bit_mode

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:18:46 +0000

Since version mios_v1_5b MIOS has supported 4-bit mode for HD44780 compatible displays Usually this mode isn't needed, but some displays have been internally configured for 4-bit operation and don't have all the necessary connections for full 8-bit operation or You might have some other reason to try this mode out.

a

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:25:29 +0000

The universal abbreviation for AMP, or ampere, a unit of measure of electrical current.

absorption

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:40:55 +0000

The loss or dissipation of energy as it travels through any medium. For example, radio waves lose some of their energy as they travel through the atmosphere.

ac

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:28:12 +0000

Alternating Current. The electricity supplied by your electric company. See AMP, coulomb, volt, current and power supply. It continually changes in potential going from zero to maximum voltage and back to zero. It also cycles to change from a positive direction to a negative direction. See also DC.

active_component

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:31:45 +0000

A component that provides gain or amplification such as transistor, integrated circuit, valve - such as a triode value. (See passive for opposite)

active_filter

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:33:29 +0000

A filter that uses an amplifier in addition to reactive components to pass or reject selected frequencies.

adc

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:34:22 +0000

An acronym for Analog to Digital Converter.

address_bus

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:35:16 +0000

The collection of wires or traces over which the CPU sends a memory location to the memory or I/O device.

aerial

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:36:17 +0000

A length of wire designed to transmit or receive radio waves. (See also Antenna)

af_audio_frequency

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:37:21 +0000

Generally in the range 20Hz to 20KHz.

agc

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:39:18 +0000

Automatic Gain Control

ai

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:42:32 +0000

See artificial intelligence.

alphanumeric

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:43:43 +0000

A character set containing letters, digits, and punctuation marks.

am

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:44:45 +0000

An acronym for Amplitude Modulation. A particular technology, most commonly used in radio broadcasting, where blending a modulated signal into a carrier wave by varying the amplitude of the carrier creates the final transmit frequency.

ammeter

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:45:59 +0000

Instrument for measuring the current in amps, milliamps or microamps.

amp

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:46:52 +0000

1. Short for ampere, a measurement of electrical current. One coulomb flowing per second. Amperage. Abbreviated A or amp. Practical unit of electrical current; the current flow rate (quantity of electrons passing a point in 1 second). Voltage of 1 volt will send a current of 1 ampere through a resistance of 1 ohm.

amperage

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:47:52 +0000

See AMP.

ampere

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:49:10 +0000

See AMP.

amplifier

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:49:53 +0000

A circuit that increases the voltage, current, or power of a signal.

amplitude

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:50:38 +0000

The magnitude or size of a signal voltage or current.

analog

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:51:50 +0000

1. An electrical signal or wave form in which the amplitude and/or frequency vary continuously. See the opposite technology, digital. 2. Electrical information contained in continuously variable physical quantities. An example of analog is AC voltage producing a sine wave.

and

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:52:54 +0000

Gate that produces a logic 1 when all of its inputs are 1. In all other cases the output is 0.

anode

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:53:46 +0000

This is the positive electrode or terminal in a circuit. It is commonly linked with diodes and CRTs. In a diode, it is the material designated as P. It is the opposite of cathode.

ansi

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:54:38 +0000

An acronym for the American National Standards Institute; a private, non-profit organization operating in the public interest to coordinate U.S. standards. Also, a common terminal control protocol. They have a site at .

antenna

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:55:42 +0000

A device that is the beginning point for getting radio, TV or similar signals, for the final point for transmitting them. The energy to or from the antenna is called RF. An antenna is a specialized transducer that converts RF (radio-frequency) fields into AC (alternating current) or vice-versa. There are two basic types. The first is the receiving antenna, which intercepts RF energy and delivers AC to electronic equipment, and the transmitting antenna, which is fed with AC from electronic equipm…

appletalk

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:57:01 +0000

The (depreciated) Apple Macintosh standard network communication protocol over serial, ethernet, usb, etc.

array

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:58:20 +0000

An array is a collection of elements, all of the same data type, given a single name, and stored in adjacent memory locations. The subscript (or index) must have an integral value. In most (but not all) programming languages, the first array element always has subscript 0. The second array element has subscript 1, etc. When allocated, the elements are automatically initialized to 0 for numeric primitive-data-type values, to false for boolean variables, or to null for references (non-primitive ty…

ascii

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:00:01 +0000

Pronounced as-key, ASCII is a sequential formula for representing English characters as numbers, with each letter assigned a number from 0 to 127; however, not all of those are really printable characters. An acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, this is the most common code for text on computers. In common usage,

assembler

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 04:15:23 +0000

A language tool that translates a user’s assembly source code (.asm) into machine code. MPASMô is Microchip’s assembler. See also Assembly A programming language that is once removed from a computer’s machine language, often called assembler. The term assembler is often used as the slang to indicate the compiler used to reduce and compile the final code. Machine languages consist entirely of numbers and are almost impossible for humans to read and write. Assembly languages have the same structu…

assembly

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 17:28:22 +0000

A programming language that is once removed from machine language. Machine languages consist entirely of numbers and are almost impossible for humans to read and write. Assembly languages have the same structure and set of commands as machine languages, but they enable a programmer to use names (mnemonics) instead of numbers.

astable

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:04:34 +0000

The opposite of stable; it is unstable. Usually it is used in electronics to describe a particular circuit or part of a circuit. In an astable circuit, the output continually switches between the high and low states without any intervention from the user, producing a square wave. An astable has no stable state; hence the name astable.

ata

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:05:25 +0000

An acronym for AT Attachment, a disk drive implementation that integrates the controller on the disk drive itself. This is often known as IDE technology or in more advanced forms, EIDE. There are several versions of ATA, all developed by the Small Form Factor (SFF) Committee: (Contrary to popular belief, this is not headed by Jenny Craig!)

atapi

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:06:38 +0000

An acronym for AT Attachment Packet Interface. This is an extension to the powerful EIDE (also called ATA-2) that enables the interface to support CD-ROM players and tape drives. Due to the support of the standard from Microsoft on W95 and (mostly) later operating systems, it has become the standard for such devices.

attenuation

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:07:16 +0000

The reduction of a signal, sometimes gradual and self created, sometimes intentionally created. An example would be a network of two computers that is ten feet in length and a network of two hundred computers that is two thousand feet in length. As a signal starts and moves from one location on each network to another, that signal is attenuated. The largest attenuation is on the longer run of network cable. A device to intentionally reduce a signal strength is called an attenuator. Devices like …

aui

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:09:08 +0000

Short for Attachment Unit Interface, the portion of the Ethernet standard that specifies how a cable is to be connected to an Ethernet card. AUI specifies a coaxial cable connected to a transceiver that plugs into a 15-pin socket on the network interface card (NIC). See AAUI.

awg

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:10:03 +0000

An electronics industry acronym for American Wire Gauge. AWG is a measure of the thickness of copper, aluminum and other wiring in the U.S. and elsewhere. Copper cabling typically varies from 18 to 26 AWG. The higher the number, the thinner the wire. The thicker the wire, the less susceptible it is to interference. In general, thin wire cannot carry the same amount of electrical current the same distance that thicker wire can.

backplane

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:13:57 +0000

A term used for many years in mainframe and minicomputers. A common bus at the rear of the computer chassis connecting each circuit card slot to the other parts of the system. Motherboards on modern PCs are a general equivalent. It also distributes low-voltage AC and DC, filtered and un-filtered power to each slot.

back_electromotive_force_back_emf

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:13:08 +0000

The emf that opposes the normal flow of current in a circuit.

bandwidth

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:14:48 +0000

1. Bandwidth is the data transfer rate of an electronic communications system. The bandwidth of a transmitted communications signal is a measure of the range of frequencies the signal occupies. In plain English bandwidth is a measurement of the running data from one computer to another. All transmitted signals, whether analog or digital, have a certain bandwidth. The same is true of receiving systems. An example it would take more bandwidth to up download a streaming video than to upload a html …

bankstick

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:15:37 +0000

The Bankstick is a non-volatile memory module for storing your presets/banks/patches on the MIDIbox. Info can be found here: For Developers: In this forum post, TK explains how to program bankstick read/write access to custom applications:

base

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:16:14 +0000

One of the pins on a transistor, along with collector and emitter. The base, also known as the gate, is the switch that turns the transistor on and off in the main circuit. When on, it returns and amplified signal voltage; when it is off, it does not conduct. It usually takes slightly more than a half volt to trigger the base to the on position to allow conduction in the generic transistor; obviously, each transistor and circuit is different.

battery

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:17:11 +0000

A storage cell for electricity. See DC.

baud

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:17:48 +0000

The speed of a modem, or other serial device, attached to and communicating with a computer. Specifically, the number of times per second a communications channel changes the carrier signal it sends on the phone line. A 14400-baud modem changes the signal 14400 times a second. A variable unit of data transmission speed (as one baud per second). Often confused with bits per second (BPS). They are technically different measurements.

bcd

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:18:25 +0000

Short for binary-coded decimal, a format for representing decimal numbers (integers) in which each digit is represented by four bits (nybble or nibble). See byte. For example, the number 375 would be represented as: 0011 0111 0101. One advantage of BCD over binary representations is that there is no limit to the size of a number. To add another digit, you just need to add a new 4-bit sequence. In contrast, numbers represented in binary format are generally limited to the largest number that can …

ber

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:19:12 +0000

An acronym for Bit Error Ratio. BER is the ratio or bits with errors to the total number of bits detected, usually expressed as a number with an exponent to a power of 10. Used to measure the quality of a signal path.

beta

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:20:31 +0000

A pre-release version of software, distributed to a selected group of users to test. At most software producers, software beta tests start with internal staff and a few selected users, and grows to many users during the late rounds of testing. By the end of a beta test, all major bugs should have been discovered and repaired. Generally, beta testing is considered to the the final pre-release stage of the tests, including experienced testers external to the developing organization.

bi-directional

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:21:15 +0000

The method of describing a path for data flow, typically on a parallel printer port. Historically, parallel ports have been used by Centronics protocol printers with data only going to the printer. With the advent of several new protocols and hardware improvements, the parallel port can provide two way data flow for disk drives, scanning devices, FAX operations and even parallel modems. Data flows FROM the computer to the device and then from the device TO the computer

binary

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:22:05 +0000

Mathematical base 2, or numbers composed of a series of zeros and ones. Since zero’s and one’s can be easily represented by two voltage levels on an electronic device, the binary number system is widely used in digital computing. (See switch.) Pertaining to a number system that has just two unique digits. For most purposes, we use the decimal number system, which has ten unique digits, 0 through 9. All other numbers are then formed by combining these ten digits. Computers are based on the binary…

binary_file

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:22:47 +0000

A file containing data or program instructions in a computer-readable format.

bios

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:23:31 +0000

Basic Input/Output System. Programs (stored in ROM) that handle the start-up operations on PCs. It is located in one or two chips, usually on the motherboard of the computer.

bipolar

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:24:35 +0000

Add definition here.

bipolar_transistor

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:27:44 +0000

The most common form of transistor.

bistable

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:29:18 +0000

Circuit that has two stable states.

bit

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:30:10 +0000

A bit is the smallest measure of data. It is a compilation of letter from Binary digit. See byte; it takes 8 bits to make a byte.

bitrate

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:31:02 +0000

The speed at which bits (instead of baud or bytes) travel along a communications path.

blackout

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:31:39 +0000

The total loss of electrical power.

board

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:32:20 +0000

An electronics industry term to designate a populated PCB (Printed Circuit Board) in a computer, phone, TV or other electrical unit.

boolean

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:33:00 +0000

Boolean logic, Boolean expressions and Boolean operators are key components in a mathematical syntax. The processes and logic associated with it are named after the nineteenth century mathematician George Boole. Boolean logic is a form of algebra in which all values are reduced to either TRUE or FALSE. Boolean logic is especially important for computer science because it fits nicely with the binary numbering system, in which each bit has a value of either 1 or 0. Another way of looking at it is …

boot

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:33:45 +0000

1. Short and slang for the early computing term, bootstrap loader. To start up or reset a computer. When a computer is booted, a bootstrap routine is automatically executed that looks for and loads the operating system. A cold boot is when the computer is powered up from an off state. A warm boot occurs when an already turned on computer is re-booted.

bootstrap

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:34:48 +0000

The ROM routine used to load the OS is often known as the 'bootstrap', from the expression “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps”. The Article MIOS Bootstrap For Newbies (also available as MIOS Bootstrap in different languages) contains important informations about how to upload MIOS - the operating system - and an application.

bottoming

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:35:47 +0000

A transistor in the fully conducting state.

bps

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:36:14 +0000

BPS - Bits Per Second. A measurement of the speed that data is transmitted and received by a modem. The larger the number, the faster the data is sent and received. Typical rates are 2400, 14,400, 28,800 and 33,600 BPS. The newest standard dial-up rate is 57,600 BPS. Rates in the higher range are often abbreviated with KB, as in 33.6 KB. Often confused with BAUD, although the terms are not interchangeable in the strictest sense; they are fairly close in accuracy for purposes of general conversat…

bridge

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:37:21 +0000

Generally a short-circuit on a PC board caused by solder joining two adjacent tracks.

bridge_rectifier

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 03:55:28 +0000

A full-wave rectifier where the diodes are connected in a bridge circuit. This allows the current to the load during both the positive and negative alternating of the supply voltage. Example:

brownout

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:38:47 +0000

A perceptable reduction in the electrical line voltage supplied is usually caused by an excessive electrical demand on the electric utility or by an insufficient power-generation capability. This is also known as brown-down.

btu

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:39:30 +0000

Acronym for British Thermal Unit. The basic measurement of energy. One BTU is required to increase the temperature of one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit.

buffer

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:40:05 +0000

1. A temporary memory location for data in transit from one device to another device; it is usually credited with making negotiations easier between devices of two different speeds. 2. A buffer is a data area shared by hardware devices or program processes that operate at different speeds or with different sets of priorities. The buffer allows each device or process to operate without being held up by the other. Like a cache, a buffer is a “midpoint holding place” but exists not so much to acce…

bug

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:40:58 +0000

A problem with computer software or hardware that causes it to malfunction or crash. The term is credited to Grace Hopper, an early pioneer in computing and the creator of COBOL, an early business computer language. It is said that one day in the late ‘40’s, she was responsible for cleaning out Eniac, the first working computer. She was to try to find what was keeping it from working correctly. She found a real bug lodged in a mechanical relay. The term started as “getting the bugs” out of the c…

bus

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:41:56 +0000

1. A collection of wires through which data is transmitted from one part of a computer to another. You can think of a bus as a highway on which data travels within a computer. When used in reference to personal computers, the term BUS usually refers to internal bus. This is a bus that connects all the internal computer components to the CPU and main memory. There’s also an expansion bus that enables expansion boards to access the CPU and memory. All buses consist of two parts, an address bus and…

bus_cycle

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:42:25 +0000

A single transaction between system memory and the CPU. See BUS.

bus_width

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:43:10 +0000

The number of data bits that can be input or accessed simultaneously. Common bus widths of DRAM are 32, 36, 40, 64, 72 and 80 bits. See BUS.

bypass_capacitor

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:45:10 +0000

A capacitor that provides a path of low impedance and low resistance to AC signals.

byte

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:45:43 +0000

1. A byte is eight bits grouped and considered a unit. There are seldom used associated terms used in conjunction with byte. A nybble is half a byte, or four bits. As was determined in the ‘20s, half of a nybble, a quarter (of a byte) or 25 cents, is two bits. A word is two bytes, or sixteen bits; a large word is four bytes, or 32 bits. A tongue twister is eight bytes, 64 bits (no kidding).

gpbutton

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 21:56:26 +0000

GP Button General Purpose Button The 16 buttons near the top of the MIDIbox SEQ V4, just below the LCDs and the Step Encoders. The GP buttons are used to set trigger layer values, to activate menu pages when the MENU button is held, and for many other purposes. For general purposes, really.