Industrial electronics

Having more than one state, only one of which is stable.

MOS

Initialism of metal oxide semiconductor.

MOSFET

Acronym of metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor.

motherboard

The primary circuit board of a personal computer, containing the circuitry for the central processing unit, keyboard, mouse and monitor, together with slots for other devices.

mouse bungee

A device that secures the cable of a computer mouse, preventing it from tangling and allowing full freedom of movement.

MOV

Initialism of metal-oxide varistor.

MSI

Initialism of medium scale integration.

multicore

Combining two or more independent cores into a single package composed of a single integrated circuit

multidrop

Of a computer bus, having all components connected to the same set of electrical wires, each component listening for its own data and negotiating with the others in order to send.

multigrid

Having more than one grid electrode (of electronic vacuum tubes)

multiprocessor

A computer that has multiple CPUs or execution units under an integrated control.

multivibrator

An electronic circuit used to implement a variety of simple two-state systems such as oscillators, timers, and flip-flops.

NCO

Initialism of numerically controlled oscillator.

near field

The region within about half a wavelength from an electrically small antenna. More specifically it is the region within the radiansphere.

negative edge

The point in time when a signal's value becomes low.

A non-SI unit of the attenuation (or sometimes gain) of field and power quantities such as electronic signals; the natural logarithm of a ratio, with 1 Np (a ratio of 2.718:1) being equivalent to 8.686 dB.

net

A conductor that interconnects two or more component terminals.

network interface card

A computer hardware component designed to allow computers to communicate over a computer network.

neural processing unit

A specialized hardware circuit designed to accelerate machine learning applications.

nicad

rechargeable nickel-cadmium battery

Nixie tube

An obsolete electronic device for displaying numerals or other information by means of glow discharge.

nMOS

A MOSFET with an n-type channel (a semiconductor doped with an element creating a surplus of electron carriers).

NOC

Initialism of network on a chip.

nodal analysis

A method of solving for the voltages of nodes in an electric circuit, in which a system of equations is written for the currents (using Kirchhoff's current law) at each node.

node

A region of an electric circuit connected only by (ideal) wires (i.e. the voltage between any two points on the same node must be zero).

non-volatile memory

A type of computer memory that can retain stored information even after power is removed.

northbridge

A microchip connected directly to the CPU (unlike the southbridge) and thus responsible for tasks that require the highest performance.

notch

A portion of a mobile phone that overlaps the edge of the screen, used to house a camera, sensors etc. while maximizing screen space.

NTC

Initialism of Negative Temperature Coefficient.

NVM

Abbreviation of non-volatile memory.

NVMe

Initialism of non-volatile memory express; a protocol for efficiently accessing (typically solid-state) NVRAM over a PCIe bus.

op-amp

A certain active circuit element useful in creating various kinds of amplifiers and filters.

optical disc

A modern data storage medium consisting of a flat disc read mechanically by illumination with laser light, including the Laserdisc, compact disc, DVD, and Blu-ray.

optical drive

A drive that reads optical media.

order

A power of polynomial function in an electronic circuit’s block, such as a filter, an amplifier, etc.

OTP

Initialism of one-time programmable.

overtrip

verbIndustrial electronics

To be oversensitive in triggering a fail-safe mechanism, especially to incorrectly activate or trip a circuit breaker.

P5

nounIndustrial electronicsobsolete, slang

Initialism of Pentium 5 a slang term used to refer to the successor to the Pentium 4 before the name was revealed by Intel.

PAE

Initialism of power added efficiency.

PAM

Abbreviation of power amplitude modulation.

parasitic

A component of a circuit that does not show up in a circuit's schematic but does show up in the circuit's behavior.

PARD

Acronym of periodic and random deviations, a form of electrical noise.

pass transistor

A transistor used as a switch to pass logic levels between nodes of a circuit, instead of as a switch connected directly to a supply voltage.

passive

Any component that consumes but does not produce energy, or is incapable of power gain.

passthrough

As of a signal through a device or network.

PATA

Initialism of parallel ATA: a computer bus technology primarily designed for transfer of data to and from a hard disk.

payment terminal

An electronic device which interfaces with payment cards to make electronic funds transfers.

PCI Express

A high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard, designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X and AGP bus standards.

PCIe

Abbreviation of PCI Express.

pclk

Abbreviation of peripheral clock.

PD

Initialism of phase detector.

PDLC

polymer dispersed liquid crystal.

PDP

Initialism of plasma display panel.

PE

Initialism of protective earthing.

pedestal server

A type of computer rack consisting of a box-like frame or a columnar support, and may include wheels for transportation.

penny

verbIndustrial electronics

To circumvent the tripping of an electrical circuit breaker by the dangerous practice of inserting a coin in place of a fuse in a fuse socket.

peripheral device

An electronic device that is outside the computer's system unit (external to the computer's enclosing case), but used by the computer to which it is connected, such as a printer or a scanner.

perpendicular recording