Section
 

Glossary: G

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Strictly speaking, a semiconductor is a material with an electrical conductivity between that of an insulator and that of a conductor. Semiconductors can be single elements such as silicon or germanium or compounds such as gallium arsenide or indium phosphide. In day to day usage, however, the term "semiconductor" more frequently refers to the components manufactured from semiconductor materials.

  • g
    Gram
  • G
    1) Giga
    2) Output Enable (signal name).
  • G&A
    General and Administration
    Organizations which do not belong to production or research.
  • GA
    1) Gate array
    2) General Administration
  • GAAP
    Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
  • GAC
    Granular Activated Carbon
  • GACT
    Granular Activated Carbon Treatment
  • GaAs
    Gallium Arsenide
    A compound semiconductor material in which active devices are fabricated. GaAs has a higher carrier mobility than silicon, thus it has the capability of producing higher speed devices.
  • GaAsFET
    A discrete device used to amplify higher frequency radio signals.
  • Gaia hypothesis
    The proposition that the composition and temperature of the atmosphere is a product of interrelated activities in the biosphere, especially those of microorganisms, and that the biosphere behaves as a single self-regulating organism. Gaia was the ancient Greek goddess of the Earth. The hypothesis was developed by the British scientist James Lovelock and American biologist Lynn Margulis. (Lovelock was also the scientist who discovered that chlorofluorocarbons were not broken down in the troposphere).
  • GAL
    Generic Array Logic
  • Gallium Arsenide
    Compound used to produce light-emitting diodes and very fast integrated circuits.
  • GAP
    Generic Access Profile Telecom, common set of features for DECT handset.
  • Gartner Dataquest
    US market research company specialized in electronics markets.
  • Gas
    One of the three states of matter. In the gaseous state, there is little attraction between the particles, which have continual, random motion. The gas has no fixed shape or volume, can expand indefinitely, and can assume the shape of the space in which it is held. It is also easily compressed, with the random collisions between particles exerting pressure on the walls of the container.
  • Gate
    1) The basic digital logic element - where the binary value of the output depends on the values of the inputs.
    2) The primary control terminal of a field effect transistor.
  • Gate array
    An IC consisting of a regular arrangement of gates that are interconnected to provide custom functions.
    Sometimes called an Uncommitted Logic Array (ULA).
  • Gate density
    The number of transistors that can be placed on a silicon chip in a unit area. With a 0.35 micron process, a gate density of 18,000 gates per square millimeter can be achieved, but moving to 0.25 micron, the gate density rises to more than 35,000 gates per square millimeter.
  • Gate equivalent
    The basic unit of measure for digital circuit complexity, based on the number of individual logic gates that would have to be interconnected to perform the same circuit function.
  • Gate oxide
    The thin layer of thermal oxide separating the gate electrode (terminal) from the semiconductor substrate.
  • Gateway
    A computer which interconnects two different networks.
  • GC
    Gas Chromatography
  • GC/MS
    Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometry
  • GCON
    RAM Enable Output (signal name).
  • GCR
    Gas-Cooled Reactor
  • GCS
    Gate Controller Switch
  • GD
    General Design
  • GDP
    Gross Domestic Product
  • GDSII
    Graphic Design Station II (Stream Format)
    A Cadence Design System proprietary format that is one of the 2 standard industry formats used to exchange layout data between systems.
  • Ge
    Germanium
  • GEMS
    Global Environment Monitoring System
  • Gentilly
    Small town on south side of Paris, location of ST local headquarters for France and French regional sales organization.
  • GEP
    Good Engineering Practice
  • Germanium
    A brittle, grayish-white metallic element having semiconductor properties. Widely used in crystal diodes and early transistors.
  • GFCIP
    Ground Fault Circuit Iinterrupter
  • GFF
    Glass Fiber Filter
  • GFI
    Ground Fault Interrupter
  • GFLOPS
    Billions of FLOating Point operation per Second
  • GIF
    Graphics Interchange Format
  • Giga
    Prefix meaning one billion.
    Symbol is G.
  • GIGO
    Garbage In - Garbage Out
  • GIS
    Geographic Information Systems
  • GIT
    Goods In Transit
  • GJ
    Gigajoule
  • Glassivation
    Passivation using silicon dioxide (glass).
  • GLC
    Ground-Level Concentration
  • Global Warming
    see Greenhouse effect
  • Global warming potential (GWP)
    A measure of the potential of substances (normally gases or volatile liquids) to heat up the atmosphere. All measures of GWP are given relative to Carbon dioxide, the most well-known gas with global warming potential, which has a GWP of 1.
  • GLP Standards
    Good Laboratory Practice Standards
  • Glue logic
    Simple logic circuits used to connect together more complex circuits which are not perfectly compatible.
  • GMCC
    Global Monitoring for Climatic Change
  • GMO
    General Markets Operations
  • GMSK
    Gaussian Mean Shift Keying
    Telecom field.
  • GND
    GrouND
  • GNP
    Gross National Product
    GNP (or GDP) measures the total wealth created in a given period of time (a year) in a country.
  • GOP
    1) Gross Operating Profit
    This is the result of Sales minus operating costs (excluding financial charges and exceptional PL items). To obtain the PBT (Profit Before Taxes), we subtract from GOP charges as debt interests, specific restructuring costs and non recurrent expenses and add non-operating income.
    2) General Operating Procedures
  • Gopher
    A hierarchical system for finding and retrieving information from Internet or Intranet.
  • GPIB
    General Pupose Interface Bus
  • GPO
    Government Printing Office
  • GPR
    Ground-Penetrating Radar
  • GPRS
    General Packet Radio Service
    For the third generation of mobile hand sets and mobile Internet devices.
  • GPS
    Global Positioning System
  • GQL
    Graphic Query Language
  • Grafing
    Small town near Munich. Location of one of ST's German Design Center.
  • GRAS
    Generally Recognized As Safe
  • Grasbrunn
    Small town on east side of Munich. Location of ST's German Headquarters.
  • Greens
    A term used primarily in Europe to cover all associations whose objective is to defend the environment. The political extremism of an association is denoted by its hue: the more extreme groups are denoted "Deep Greens" while the more moderate groups are denoted "Light Greens".
  • Greenhouse effect
    The predicted increased warming of the atmosphere resulting from the accumulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide and other gases with global warming potential. The atmosphere is normally warmed when infrared radiation emitted by the Earth is absorbed by carbon dioxide gas and water vapor in the atmosphere. It has been hypothesized that as the amount of carbon dioxide increases due to the combustion of fossil fuels and deforestation, especially of tropical rain forests, more heat energy will be retained by the Earth's atmosphere, resulting in a rise in its temperature. This in turn could result in changes in rainfall and wind patterns and melting of polar ice, thus raising the global sea level. The change in weather patterns could have devastating consequences to the world's present prime agricultural areas. A significant rise in sea level could flood many coastal cities and damage ecologically important coastal wetlands. Other gases with global warming potential whose concentrations in the atmosphere are increasing in the atmosphere as a result of human activities are methane, nitrous oxide, the chlorofluorocarbons and the perfluorocarbons.
  • Green PC
    A personal computer that consumes less power, complying with the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star standard.
  • Grenoble
    Town in south-east France. Location of ST "Polygone" site. The ST Crolles facility and the TCEC joint ST/Thomson Multimedia design center are also close to Grenoble.
  • GRN
    Goods Receipt Note
    This is a note acknowledging proper receipt of goods.
  • Gross dice
    Total dice on wafer
  • Groundwater
    A term used to describe the water which is found below ground. This water, which in most cases is derived from water seeping into the ground, is found in those geological formations which have a certain porosity. Groundwater is commonly abstracted through wells and is a major source of drinking water, irrigation water and industrial water in many parts of the world. Relative to surface waters, groundwater moves extremely slowly - a flow of meters a day is considered very fast. Because of this, any contaminants which enter groundwater are flushed away only very slowly. This fact, together with its importance as a source of water, makes contamination of groundwater a very critical environmental issue in many circumstances.
  • Groundwater contamination
    The pollution of springs and wells from their sources underground. It can result from indiscriminate land disposal of potentially hazardous waste materials that are then dissolved or suspended in free liquids, usually water, and leach downward through the unsaturated profile to the zone of saturation or from improperly constructed or operated wells.
  • Groundwater monitoring
    The periodic sampling and analysis of changes in concentrations of chemical constituents in groundwater.
  • Groundwater plume
    A volume of contaminated groundwater in an aquifer that extends downward and outward from a specific source of contamination; the shape and movement of the mass of the contaminated water is affected by the local geology, materials present in the plume and the flow characteristics of the area's groundwater. In some locations, where the conditions are particularly favourable to their formation, plumes kilometers long have formed in aquifers.
  • GRP
    GRouP
  • GSI
    Government Source Inspection
  • GSM
    Global System for Mobile communications
    The European standard for cellular mobile phones.
  • GST
    Generic Sales Type
    An aggregated group of products to manage allocation procedure.
  • GTN
    Global Trend Network
  • GUI
    Graphical user interface
    Set-top Box field.
  • GVPP
    Output Enable Program Supply(signal name)
  • GW
    Gigawatt
  • GWP
    Global-Warming Potential
  • GWPS
    GroundWater Protection Standard