Amperes, capacitance, dissipation factor, oh my! Whether you’re new to the biomedical-engineering field or you’re a seasoned veteran, remembering all of the professional terminology can be difficult. So, to help you recall what all of the common jargon and acronyms mean, we’ve provided you with a simple cheat-sheet.

A – Amperes

AC – Alternating Current

A/D – Analog to Digital

ADC – Analog to Digital Converter

AE – Applications Engineer

AI– Artificial Intelligence

ALU – Arithmetic-Logic Unit

AM – Amplitude Modulation

AMD – Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

ANSI – American National Standards Institute

ARQ – Automatic Retransmission reQuest

ASCII – American Standard Code for Information Interchange

ASEE – American Society for Engineering Education

ASIC – Application Specific Integrated Circuit

ASPI – Advanced SCSI Programming Interface

ATDM – Asynchronous Time Division Multiplexing

ATM – Asynchronous Transfer Mode

AUI – Attached Unit Interface

B – Magnetic Flux

BBS – Bulletin Board System

BCC – Block Check Character

BCD – Binary Coded Decimal

BiCMOS – Bipolar Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor

BIOS – Basic Input/Output System

BPS/bps – Bytes/bits Per Second

BSC – Binary Synchronous Communications

BSD – Berkeley Standard Distribution

C – Capacitance

CAD – Computer-Aided Design

CAM – Computer-Aided Manufacturing

CAM – Content Addressable Memory

CAS – Column Address Strobe

CBX – Common Branch eXtender

CCD – Charge-Coupled Device

CCITT – Consultative Committee of International Telephony and Telegraphy

CD – Carrier Detect

CDDI – Copper Distributed Data Interface

CDROM – Compact Disk Read Only Memory

CDMA – Code Division Multiple Access

CGA – Color Graphics Adapter

CISC – Complex Instruction-Set Computer

CLA – Carry Look-ahead Adder

CMOS – Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor

CP/M – Control Program/Monitor

CPI – Clocks Per Instruction

CPLD – Complex Programmable Logic Device

CPU – Central Processing Unit

CR – Carriage Return

CRC – Cyclic Redundancy Code

CRQ – Command Response Queue

CRT – Cathode Ray Tube

CS – Chip Select/Check-Sum

CSMA – Carrier Sense Multiple-Access

CSMA/CD – Carrier Sense Multiple-Access with Collision Detect

CSR – Command Status Register

CTS – Clear to Send

D – Dissipation Factor

D/A – Digital to Analog

DAC – Digital-to-Analog Converter

DAT – Digital Audio Tape

dB – (DB) deciBels

dBm – dB referenced to 1 milliWatt

DC – Direct Current

DCD – Data Carrier Detect

DCE – Data Circuit (Channel) Equipment

DD – Double Density

DDD – Direct Distance Dialing

DEC – Digital Equipment Corporation

DES – Data Encryption Standard

DID – Direct Inward Dial

DIN – Deutsche Industrie Norm

DIP – Dual-in-Line Package

DMA – Direct Memory Access

DOS – Disk Operating System

DPDT – Double-Pole Double-Throw (switch)

DPE – Data Parity Error

DPSK – Differential Phase Shift Keying

DRAM – Dynamic Random Access Memory

DS – Double Sided

DSP – Digital Signal Processor

DSR – Data Set Ready

DTC – Data Terminal Controller

DTE – Data Terminal (Terminating) Equipment

DTMF – Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency

DTR – Data Terminal Ready

DVD – Digital Video Disk

E – EMF

EBCDIC – Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code

ECC – Error Correction Code

ECL – Emitter-Coupled Logic

ECN – Engineering Change Notice

ECO – Engineering Change Order

ECR – Engineering Change Request

EEPROM – Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory

EGA – Enhanced Graphics Adapter

EIA – Electronic Industries Association

EISA – Enhanced Industry Standard Architecture

EMI – Electro-Magnetic Interference

EMF – Electro-Motive Force

EMS – Expanded Memory Specification

EOF – End of File

EOL – End of Line

EPROM – Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory

ESD – Electro-Static Discharge

ESDI – Enhanced Small Devices Interface