Please select a letter for terms starting with that letter:

- N -

Network
Connecting two or more computers and/or networkable devices for data sharing or for remote control of devices.

NTSC
Acronym for National Television Systems Committee; the television standard for the United States, administered by the Federal Communications Committee (FCC). NTSC is 525 lines of resolution transferred at a rate of 30 frames per second.

NAB
National Association of Broadcasters - The body which sets standards for US broadcast stations.

National Television Standards Committee
see NTSC.

Nematic
Polarized light.

Networking
Two or more devices (or people) that can communicate with each other and share resources.

Network File Server
Disk Storage Resource.

Nibble
Four bits, half of a byte.

NIC
Network Interface Card.

NIC Address
Vendor address component and serial number of the card together comprise the NIC Address.

Ni-Cad
Nickel cadmium battery.

Node
A concentration point in a network where numerous trunks come together at the same switch.

Noise
Any unwanted signal, such as in audio and video, that affects the quality of the picture or sound.

Noise-Canceling
A microphone designed to cancel ambient noise so that it will not be broadcast or recorded. The housing of the microphone allows noise to reach both sides of the diaphragm simultaneously, one side canceling the other out. A close speaking voice strikes the diaphragm on only one side, generating a stronger signal with less background noise.

Non-Broadcast Television
Technically, the signal must be broadcast to become "television".

Non-Composite Video Signal
A video signal that contains picture and blanking information only, with no sync information.

Non-Interlaced
Also called progressive scan, a method by which all the video scan lines are presented on the screen in one sweep instead of two. Also see "interlaced".

Non-Segmented
A system of video recording that uses one head to scan one field of video on the tape.

Normally Closed Contact
Relay or switch contacts that are closed when the relay is not energized.

Normally Open Contact
Relay or switch contacts that are open when the relay is not energized.

NT 1
Network Termination type 1. The NT-1 is a device which converts the two-wire line (or "U" interface) coming from a telephone company into a 4-wire line (or "S/T" interface). The NT- 1 is physically connected between the ISDN board of a videoconferencing system and an ISDN phone line. The NT- 1 supports network maintenance functions such as loop testing. Some ISDN equipment requires an external NT-1 to operate.

NTSC
National Television Standards Committee. The television analog standard for North America and parts of South America having 525 lines/60 Hz (60 Hz refresh). Two fields per frame and 30 frames per second.
NTSC Broadcast 4.2 MHz standard, 366 lines
NTSC S-Video SVHS 5.5 MHz standard, 440 lines
NTSC Component DVD 6.25 MHz standard, 500 lines
Dtv/HDTV 1920 x 1080i (pixels) interlaced standard, 960 lines
Dtv/HDTV 1280 x 720P (pixels)) progressive standard (externally transcoded to 1920 x 1080i, 640 lines

NTSC Decoder
See Decoder.

Ns
Acronym for NanoSecond, or 1/1,000,000,000 of a second.

NuBus
Apple's interface standards for internal cards for Mac II

[back to top]