A reference circuit is a hypothetical electric circuit of specified equivalent length and configuration, and having a defined transmission characteristic or characteristics, used primarily as a reference for measuring the performance of other, i.e., real, circuits or as a guide for planning and engineering of circuits and networks.
Normally, several types of reference circuits are defined, with different configurations, because communications are required over a wide range of distances. Another type of reference circuit shows how to configure integrated circuits into function blocks, which Analog Devices provides for electrical design engineers. Analog Devices' Circuits from the Lab reference circuits are fully tested and come with the schematics, evaluation boards, and device drivers necessary for system integration. A group of related reference circuits is also called a reference system.
Famous quotes containing the words reference and/or circuit:
“In sum, all actions and habits are to be esteemed good or evil by their causes and usefulness in reference to the commonwealth, and not by their mediocrity, nor by their being commended. For several men praise several customs, and, contrarily, what one calls vice, another calls virtue, as their present affections lead them.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
“We are all hostages, and we are all terrorists. This circuit has replaced that other one of masters and slaves, the dominating and the dominated, the exploiters and the exploited.... It is worse than the one it replaces, but at least it liberates us from liberal nostalgia and the ruses of history.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)