Glossary

Also see this list on Wikipedia

A

• ADC
  • Analog-to-Digital Converter
• AI
  • Artificial Intelligence
• AIoT
  • AI + Internet of Things (IoT)
• ARM
  • Advanced RISC Machine
• ANCS
  • Apple Notification Center Service
    • a proprietary service for Apple devices

B

• BLE
  • Bluetooth Low Power

C

• CL
  • Continuous Learning
    • a subfield of AI & ML that enables online, serverless adaptation
• CNN
  • In the context of AI, CNN is an acronym for Convolutional Neural Network, a class of artificial neural network, most commonly used to analyze visual imagery.
• CS
  • Chip Select connection

D

• DAC
  • Digital-to-Analog Converter
• DAP
  • Debug Access Point
• DAPLink
  • Arm Mbed DAPLink is an open-source software project that enables programming and debugging application software on running on Arm Cortex CPUs. Commonly referred to as interface firmware, DAPLink runs on a secondary MCU that is attached to the SWD or JTAG port of the application MCU. This configuration is found on nearly all development boards. It creates a bridge between your development computer and the CPU debug access port. DAPLink enables developers with drag-and-drop programming, a serial port and CMSIS-DAP based debugging.
• DIP
  • Dual In-line Package
    • an electronic component package
• DL
  • Deep Learning
    • a subfield of AI
• DSP
  • Digital Signal Processor
    • a specialized microprocessor chip
• duty cycle ratio
  • Because power is only applied [to digital devices] when the duty cycle is on, the average power delivered to the device is the duty cycle ratio multiplied by the "on" time.

E

• Edge computing
  • Edge computing is a distributed computing framework that brings applications closer to data sources such as IoT devices or local edge servers.
• eMMC
  • Embedded MultiMedia Card
    • a solid-state storage device, IC package for use in circuit boards as an embedded non-volatile memory system.
• ESD
  • Electro-Static Discharge

F

• FIFO
  • First In/First Out

G

• GPIO
  • General Purpose Input-Output

I

• I²C
  • Inter-Integrated Circuit, a Phillips-trademarked name
    • also see TWI
    • a hardware communications protocol
• IC
  • Integrated Circuit
    • a.k.a., "chip"
• IDE
  • Integrated Development Environment
• IMU
  • Inertial Measurement Unit
• INO file
  • Arduino (IDE) file format extension
• IoT
  • Internet of Things
• IRQ
  • Interrupt Request

M

• MCU
  • MicroController Unit
• microcontroller
  • a compact integrated circuit designed to govern a specific operation in an embedded system. A typical microcontroller includes a processor, memory and input/output (I/O) peripherals on a single chip.
• MISO
  • Master In/Slave Out
  • a data transmission connection protocol
• ML
  • Machine Learning
    • also see TinyML
• MOSI
  • Master Out/Slave In
    • a data transmission connection protocol
• Mosquitto
  • a cross-platform, open-source MQTT broker (central server)
• MQTT
  • Message Queue Telemetry Transport
    • a lightweight publish/subscribe messaging protocol, useful for IoT projects
• microfs
  • tool that uses the USB serial connection for working with the filesystem in MicroPython

N

• NodeMCU
  • a low-cost open source IoT platform, for ESP8266 & ESP32 from Espressif
    • Strictly speaking, the term "NodeMCU" refers to the firmware rather than the associated development kits.
• NPU
  • Network Processing Unit

O

• ODL
  • On Device Learning
    • a technique used in TinyML

• ONNX
  • Open Neural Network Exchange
    • open standard for machine learning interoperability
    • ONNX is an open format built to represent machine learning models
• open drain
  • means the communications signal is pulled high by default, and devices change the signal by pulling low
• open source
  • source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution.
    • Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product.

P

• PDM
  • Pulse Density Modulation
    • a method of representing an analog signal with binary (on/off) data
• PIR
  • Passive InfraRed sensor
• PLC
  • A PLC is an industrial microprocessor-based controller with programmable memory used to store program instructions and various functions.
• PWM
  • Pulse Width Modulation
    • another method of representing an analog signal, to control the average power delivered, e.g. using a potentiometer

Q

• QoS
  • Quality of Service

R

• Relay
  • A Relay is an electromechanical device that can be used to make or break an electrical connection.
    • It consists of a flexible moving mechanical part which can be controlled electronically through an electromagnet. Basically, a relay is just like a mechanical switch but you can control it with an electronic signal instead of manually turning it on or off.
• REPL
  • Read, Evaluate, Print,Loop
    • This is the three-chevron prompt (>>>) in Python and MicroPython where you type commands interactively.
    • a simple, interactive programming environment that takes single user inputs (i.e., single expressions), evaluates them, and returns the result to the user
• RTC
  • Real Time Clock
• RX
  • Receive, or Receiving Port

S

• SBC
  • Single Board Computer, such as Raspberry Pi
• SCL
  • Clock signal used by I²C protocol
• SCK
  • Serial Clock
• SCLK
  • Serial CLocK
• SDA
  • Data signal used by I²C protocol
• SMD
  • Surface Mount Device
    • an electronic component package
• SMPS
  • Switched-Mode Power Supply
    • an electronic power supply that incorporates a switching regulator to convert electrical power efficiently.
• SPI
  • Serial Peripheral Interface
• STM32
  • a family of 32-bit microcontroller integrated circuits by STMicroelectronics

T

• TensorFlow Lite
  • a mobile library for deploying [machine learning] models on mobile, microcontrollers and other edge devices.
• Cloud TPU
  • Tensor Processing Unit in the cloud (i.e., in a remote data center)
• TinyML
  • Tiny Machine Learning
    • Embedded ML designed for use on small devices, such as MCUs
• TWI
  • Two-Wire Interface
    • an open-source description of the I²C protocol
• TX
  • Transmit, or Transmitting Port

U

• UART
  • Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter
• USB
  • Universal Serial Bus

W

• WebREPL
  • Browser-based REPL used to communicate with ESP8266/ESP32 boards via local Wifi

X

• X-Cube-AI
  • X-CUBE-AI is an STM32Cube Expansion Package, which is part of the STM32Cube.AI ecosystem. It extends STM32CubeMX capabilities with automatic conversion of pretrained artificial intelligence algorithms, including neural network and classical machine learning models. It integrates also a generated optimized library into the user's project.