Page 88 - The Illustrated Dictionary of Electronics

5059F-pB_56-92 4/9/01 4:45 PM Page 73

BiMOS • binaural 73

BiMOS A combination of bipolar and MOSFET circuit to be preset to deliver an output pulse only
transistors in an integrated circuit. Thus, a typi- after a predetermined number of input pulses.
cal BiMOS device can have MOSFET input for binary relay See BISTABLE RELAY.
high impedance and bipolar output for low binary scaler In its simplest form, a single two-
impedance. stage device, such as a flip-flop, which functions
binant electrometer An electrometer in which a as a divide-by-two counter, because one output
thin platinum vane (“the needle”) is suspended pulse results from every two input pulses.
within two halves of a metal pillbox-shaped con- Higher-order scaling is obtained by cascading
tainer. The halves or binants are biased with a dc stages.
voltage of 1 to 12 V, and the unknown voltage is binary search A system of search entailing the
applied to the vane. It is also called DUANT successive division of a set of items into two parts
ELECTROMETER and HOFFMAN ELECTROME- and the rejection of one of the two until all items
TER. of the sought-for kind are isolated.
binary 1. Pertaining to the base-2 number system.
Thus, binary arithmetic uses two digits: 0 and 1.
2. Pertaining to two-element chemical com-
pounds. {
binary arithmetic Mathematical operations per-
formed using only the digits 0 and 1.
binary cell In a computer memory, an element
that can display either of two stable states.
binary chain A cascade of binary elements, such
as flip-flops, each unit of which affects the stable
state of the succeeding unit in sequence.
binary channel Any channel whose use is limited {
to two symbols.
binary code A system of numbers representing
quantities by combinations of 1 and 0; a binary-
number system.
binary-coded decimal notation In digital com-
puter operations, a system of notation in which
each digit of a decimal number is represented by
its binary equivalent. Thus, the decimal number
327 in BCD notation becomes 0011 0010 0111.
(By contrast, in pure binary notation, 327 is
101000111.)
binary-coded octal notation A method of num-
bering in which each base-8 digit is represented binary search
by a binary number from 000 to 111.
binary-controlled gate circuit A gate circuit con- binary signal Any signal that can attain either of
trolled by a binary stage. An example is a gating two states. Such a signal is always a digital sig-
transistor that receives its on/off pulses from a nal.
flip-flop. binary-to-decimal conversion 1. The automatic
binary counter A counter circuit consisting of a conversion of a number represented by a series of
cascade of bistable stages. Each stage is a scale- binary pulses into the corresponding decimal
of-two counter because its output is on for every number, which then is displayed by a readout de-
second input pulse. At any instant, the total bi- vice. 2. The arithmetic operation of converting a
nary count in a multistage counter thus is shown binary number into a decimal number; this can
by the on and off states of the various stages in be done by noting the powers of 2 represented by
sequence. the various binary digits in a number, and then
binary decoder A device or stage that accepts bi- adding the decimal values of these powers.
nary signals on its input lines, and provides a binary word A binary numeral that has a particu-
usually exclusive output (representing a decimal lar meaning, agreed upon by convention. For ex-
digit, for example). ample, the letters A through Z can be represented
binary digit See BIT. by binary numbers 00001 through 11010; a word
binary number system The base-two system of can be represented by several blocks of five digits.
notation. This system uses only two symbols, 0 binaural Literally, two-eared. In sound recording
and 1, and accordingly is easily applied to two- and reproduction, the transcription of a broad
position switches, relays, and flip-flops. sound source using two microphones spaced at
binary preset switch In a binary counter or binary approximately the distance between the ears on a
control circuit, a selector switch that allows the human head, and played back using headphones