
MC92604 Dual Gigabit Ethernet Transceiver Reference Manual, Rev. 1
Freescale Semiconductor
Glossary-1
Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations
The glossary contains an alphabetical list of terms, phrases, and abbreviations used in this book. Some of
the terms and definitions included in the glossary are reprinted from IEEE Std 754-1985, IEEE Standard
for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic, copyright 1985 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers, Inc., with the permission of the IEEE.
A
Asserted. Indicates active state of signal has been set. Refers to either inputs or outputs.
B
BERC. Bit Error Rate Checking.
BERT. Bit Error Rate Testing.
BIST. Built-In Self-Test.
Bit alignment. Refers to the transition tracking loop recovering data bits from the serial input
stream.
Byte. Eight bits of uncoded data.
Byte alignment. Receiver identification of character boundaries through use of Idle character
recognition.
C
Character. An 8B/10B encoded byte of data.
D
Double data rate (DDR). The data is transferred on both the rising and falling edge of the
clock rather than on just the rising edge.
G
Gigabit. A unit of speed of data transfer. One gigabit indicates a data throughput of 1 billion
bits per second requiring a transfer rate of 1.25 billion symbols per second of 8B/10B
encoded data.
Gigabaud. A unit of speed of symbol transfer. One gigabaud indicates a data throughput of 800
million bits per second requiring a transfer rate of 1.0 billion symbols per second of 8B/10B
encoded data.
Gigabit media independent interface (GMII). The interface between the reconciliation
sublayer and the physical coding sublayer (PCS) for a 100 Mbps operation.
I
Inter-packet gap (IPG). The delay or time gap in between CSMA/CD packets. The delay
provides interframe recovery time for other CSMA/CD sublayers and for the physical
medium.