Glossary
of Computer Programming
and Robotics Terms
|A|B|C|D|E|
F|G|H|I|J|
K|L|M|N|O|
P|Q|R|S|T|
U|V|W|X|Y|
Z
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- ASCII
- Acronym for "American Standard Code for Information Interchange". It is widely accepted type of coding where each number and letter have their own eight-bit code. In this system, 32 is space, 65 is "A", 87 is "a".
- Assembler
- A software development tool that translates human-readable assembly language programs into machine-readable code that the target processor can understand and execute.
- Assembly Language
- A human-writable form of a processor's native instruction set. In its typical form, each line of assembly code represents a single CPU instruction. The human-readable representation of each opcode is called a mnemonic.
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B Entries Start Here
- Big-endian
- A data representation for a multibyte value that has the most significant byte stored at the lowest memory address. Every processor stores its data in either big-endian or little-endian format. Sun's SPARC, Motorola's 68k, the Java Virtual Machine, and the PowerPC families are all big-endian. Every communications protocol must define the byte order of its multibyte values. TCP/IP uses big-endian representation.
- Breakpoint
- A location in a program at which execution is to be stopped and control of the processor switched to the debugger. Mechanisms for creating and removing breakpoints are provided by most debugging tools.
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- CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer
- Describes the architecture of a processor family. CISC processors generally feature variable-length instructions and multiple addressing formats and have a small number of general-purpose registers.
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- DRAM (dee ram) Short for Dynamic Random Access Memory.
- A type of RAM that maintains its content only as long as the data stored in the device is refreshed at regular intervals. The repetitive row by column refresh access cycles are usually performed by a peripheral called a DRAM controller. If this isn't done every few milliseconds, some or all of the data stored in the memory can be lost.
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- I/O pin
- External microcontroller's connector pin which can be configured as input or output. In most cases the I/O pin enables a microcontroller to communicate, control or read information.
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- Microcontroller
- A highly integrated microprocessor designed specifically for use in embedded systems. Microcontrollers typically include an integrated CPU, memory (a small amount of RAM, ROM, or both), and other peripherals on the same chip. Common examples are Microchip's PIC, the 8051, Intel's 80196, and Motorola's 68HC11 and 68HC12 series.
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X Entries Start Here
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Y Entries Start Here
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Z Entries Start Here
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