Glossary

The terms a page can use without re-teaching. Each one hovers as a popover wherever it appears in the docsite.

Every entry here is a term the rest of the docsite can USE rather than re-explain. A page writes {{ explainable "termination" }} and the reader gets a hoverable link carrying the whole definition, so the sentence stays short and nobody has to remember what they read four pages ago.

A learn/ chapter still teaches a term in full the first time it introduces it. Every later mention, anywhere on the site, is a tag. Within a single page, tag the FIRST mention only and leave the rest as plain text, since a page of dotted underlines helps nobody.

Authors: the docsite README has the mechanics, and terms_test.go fails the build on a tag naming a term that does not exist, a term missing from this index, or a term nothing references.

The levels below are the ones the course defines, so a term sits at the level whose question it helps answer.

Parts (EE1)

  • Reference designator, the R5 or U1 label, and the name every tool uses for that component
  • Footprint, the copper pads one part solders onto, as against the designator that names it

Nets (EE2)

  • Netlist, the list of nets a board is built from, carrying none of the drawing
  • Rail, a net whose job is to carry a supply voltage rather than information
  • Ground, the net every other voltage is measured against, and the return path
  • Bus, nets several parts share, whose requirements come from a standard
  • Differential pair, two wires carrying one signal in opposite senses

Roles (EE3)

  • Pull-up, the resistor that holds a signal high when nothing is driving it
  • Pull-down, the same with the other default
  • Decoupling capacitor, the local charge store at a chip’s supply pin
  • Ferrite bead, a near short at DC that turns high-frequency noise into heat
  • Termination, the resistor that stops a signal reflecting off the end of a bus
  • Test point, a pad that exists so a probe can reach a net
  • Transceiver, the translator between logic pins and a bus’s own voltages

Failure modes (EE4)

Numbers (EE5)

  • Absolute maximum rating, the damage threshold, as against the recommended operating condition it gets confused with
  • Derating, running below a limit on purpose, so tolerance and temperature still leave margin

Systems (EE6)

  • Power tree, the cascade of regulators from input voltage to every rail
  • Strap, a pin sampled once at reset that configures a part for good

Layout (EE7)

  • Via, the plated hole that lets a net change layers