Page 166 - Electrical Engineering Dictionary

constructive solid geometry method by sions are allowed to conflict when accessing
which complex 3-D objects are defined as the the communication channel. The conflict is
combination of simpler solids. then resolved through the use of a static or dy-
namicconflictresolutionprotocol. Staticres-
contact head See disk head. olution means that the conflict resolution is
based on some preassigned priority. A static
contact potential the internal voltage resolution can be probabilistic if the statistics
that exists across a p-n junction under ther- of the probabilities are fixed. A common ex-
malequilibriumconditions, whennoexternal ample is the p-persistent ALOHA protocol.
bias voltage is applied. The dynamic resolution allows for changing
the parameters of the conflict resolution algo-
contact printing a lithographic method rithm to reflect the traffic state of the system.
whereby a photomask is placed in direct A common example is the Ethernet protocol.
contact with a photoresist coated wafer and
the pattern is transferred by exposing light context the privilege, protection and
through the photomask into the photoresist. address-translation environment of instruc-
tion execution.
contactor electromechanically actuated
spring-loadedrelaycontactsnormallyusedto context switching an operation that
control lights, heat, or other non-motor loads. switches the CPU from one process to an-
In essence, it is an electromechanically oper- other, by saving all of the CPU registers for
ated switch that usually requires some form the first and replacing them with the CPU
of pilot device for its actuation. registers for the second.

containment building (1) a steel and con- context units a set of memory units added
crete structure which encloses and isolates to a feedforward network that receives infor-
the radioactive portion of a nuclear power mation when an input is presented to the net-
plant. work and passes this information to the hid-
(2) a heavily re-inforced structure which den layer when the next input is presented to
surrounds the reactor and other radioactive the network.
portions of a nuclear power plant so as to con-
tain radioactive gases or debris in the event contingency analysis a plan for dealing
of an explosion. with any of the probable faults which might
befall a particular electric power system, the
containment vessel the heavy steel goal being to maintain power to the maxi-
container which encloses the core of a mum number of customers and/or the most
pressurized-water reactor cf in a nuclear critical customers.
power plant.
contingency list in security analysis, a
content-addressable memory (CAM) list, necessarily incomplete, of everything
See associative memory. which could possibly go wrong in a section
of an electric power system.
contention additional latency incurred
as the result of multiple requestors needing contingency ranking the process of rank-
access to a shared resource, which can only ing the list of probable contingencies in order
be used by one at a time. of severity.

contention protocol class of a multi- contingency selection the process of nar-
ple access protocol where the users transmis- rowing the list of probable contingencies, or

c
2000 by CRC Press LLC