Glossary

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1. A[edit source]

A2DP: Advanced Audio Distribution Profile
ABI: Application binary interface. ( In computer software, an application binary interface (ABI) describes the low-level interface between a computer program and the operating system or another program.)
ACL: Automatic current limit (LCD power improvement solution)
ADB: Android debug bridge (Android specific)
ADBD: Android debug bridge daemon (Android specific)
ADC: Analog-to-digital converter. The process of converting a sampled analog signal to a digital code that represents the amplitude of the original signal sample.
AES: Advanced Encryption Standard
AF: GPIO alternate function
AHB: Advanced High-performance Bus
AI: Artificial Intelligence
AIDL: Android Interface Definition Language (see https://developer.android.com/guide/components/aidl)
aka: also known as
ALSA: Advanced Linux sound architecture
AOSP: Android Open Source Project
APB: Advanced Peripheral Bus
API: Application programming interface
APT: Advanced Package Tool (see https://wiki.debian.org/Apt)
Arm^®: Arm^® is a registered trademark of Arm Limited (or its subsidiaries) in the US and/or elsewhere.
Arm: Arm^® is a registered trademark of Arm Limited (or its subsidiaries) in the US and/or elsewhere.
ARP: Protocol used by the Internet Protocol, specifically IPv4, to map IP network addresses to the hardware addresses used by a data link protocol (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Address_Resolution_Protocol)
ART: Android Runtime (see https://source.android.com/devices/tech/dalvik)
ASoC: ALSA System on Chip
AVB: Audio Video Bridging over Ethernet (set of IEEE standards for transporting audio and other real-time content over Ethernet)
AVD: Analog Voltage Detector

2. B[edit source]

BCC: BPF compiler collection
BL1: Boot Loader stage 1
BL2: Boot Loader stage 2
BL32: Boot Loader stage 3-2
BL33: Boot Loader stage 3-3
BLE: Bluetooth Low Energy. Bluetooth LE, marketed as Bluetooth Smart is a wireless personal area network technology designed and marketed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group aimed at novel applications in the healthcare, fitness, beacons, security, and home entertainment industries.
Compared to Classic Bluetooth, Bluetooth Smart is intended to provide considerably reduced power consumption and cost while maintaining a similar communication range. (sourcehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth_Low_Energy)
BoardId: eval,disco (Generic term used, to complete configuration modules paths depending on used board)
BOR: Brownout reset
BSP: Board support package
BSEC: Boot and Security and OTP control
BT: BlueTooth

3. C[edit source]

CABC: Content-Adaptative Backlight Control (LCD power improvement solution)
CAB: Content-Adaptative Backlight (LCD power improvement solution)
CAN: Controller Area Network (robust bus mainly used for automotive applications)
CEC: Consumer Electronics Control (HDMI standard)
CLUT: Colour Look-Up Table
CMSIS: Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard
CNN: Convolutional Neural Network
configfs: Configuration File System (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Configfs for more details)
Cortex: Cortex^®
CoT: Chain of Trust
CPL: Common Public License
CPU: Central processing unit
CRC: Cyclic redundancy check calculation unit
CRYP: Cryptographic processor
CSG: Constructive Solid Geometry
CSI: Multi Speed Internal oscillator (STM32 clock source)
CSS: Cascading Style Sheets (web standard)
CTS: Compatibility Test Suite (Android specific) or Clear to send (in UART context)
CV: Computer Vision

4. D[edit source]

DAC: Digital-to-analog converter (Electronic circuit that converts a binary number into a continuously varying value.)
DAI: Digital Audio Interface
DAPM: Dynamic Audio Power Management
DBI: Display Bus Interface (MIPI^® Alliance standard)
DCMI: Digital Camera Memory Interface
DDB: Device Descriptor Block (MIPI^® Alliance standard)
DDC: Display Data Channel (VESA standard)
DDR: Doubledata rate (memory domain)
debugfs: Debug File System (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debugfs for more details)
devfs: Device File System (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_file#DEVFS for more details)
DES: Data Encryption Standard
DFSDM: Digital Filter for Sigma-Delta Modulator
DFT: Techniques implemented during semiconductor development to improve device testability (Scan, BIST…).
DFU: Device Firmware Upgrade
DHCP: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Host_Configuration_Protocol for more details)
DISCO: Discovery kit
DMA: Direct Memory Access
DMA2D: Chrom-Art Accelerator™ controller (STM32 specific)
DMIC: Digital microphone
DPI: Display Pixel Interface (MIPI^® Alliance standard)
DRD: Dual-Role Device (USB standard defines host and device roles. OTG controllers support both roles and can be called Dual-Role Devices controllers.)
DRI: Direct Rendering Infrastructure (Linux^® framework for allowing direct access to graphics hardware... find more information on official DRI web site http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/FrontPage)
DRM: Direct Rendering Manager (kernel module that gives direct hardware access to DRI clients, find more information on official DRI web site http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/DRM)
DRP: Dual Role Port, an USB port that can operate in host or device mode
DSI: Display Serial Interface (MIPI^® Alliance standard)
DT: Device Tree
DTB: Device Tree Binary (or Blob)
DTS: Device Tree Source (in software context) or Digital Temperature Sensor (in peripheral context)
DVI: Digital Visual Interface (Digital Display Working Group)
DVFS: Dynamic voltage and frequency scaling

5. E[edit source]

EAL: Evaluation Assurance Level
ECC: Error Correction Capability
ECC: Elliptic curve cryptography
ECDSA: Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm
EDID: Extended Display Identification Data (HDMI standard)
EDP: Embedded Display Port (VESA standard). See http://www.displayport.org/ for more details
EEPROM: Electrically-erasable programmable read-only memory
EGL: Khronos Native Platform Graphics Interface (See http://www.khronos.org/egl/ for more details)
EHCI: Enhanced Host Controller Interface
ELF: Executable and linkable file
EMI: External memory interface
eMMC: former spelling for e•MMC ('e' in italic)
e•MMC: Embedded Multi-Media Card
EOT: End Of Transmission (MIPI^® Alliance DSI standard)
eSDK: Extensible Software development kit
ETH: Ethernet
ETM: Embedded Trace Macrocell
ETZPC: Extended TrustZone Protection Controller
EVAL: Evaluation board
EXTI: External Interrupt

6. F[edit source]

FB: Frame Buffer (could be the Kernel framebuffer linked to the display, a GPU framebuffer, an imaging framebuffer...)
FCONF: Firmware Configuration Framework used by TF-A - NEW
FHS: File Hierarchy Standard defines by Linux^® Fundation
FIP: Firmware Image Package is a packaging format used by TF-A
FIT: Flattened uImage Tree is a packaging format used by U-Boot
Flash: Flash memory shortened to gain space in titles, tables and block diagrams
Flash memory: Flash memories combine high density and cost effectiveness of EPROMs with the electrical erasability of EEPROMs. For this reason, the Flash memory market is one of the most exciting areas of the semiconductor industry today and new applications requiring in system reprogramming, such as cellular telephones, automotive engine management systems, hard disk drives, PC BIOS software for Plug & Play, digital TV, set top boxes, fax and other modems, PC cards and multimedia CD-ROMs, offer the prospect of very high volume demand.
foo_driver: foo_driver could be any driver that needs to control a GPIO
FPS: Frames per second
FSBL: First Stage Boot Loader
FTR: First Time Right

7. G[edit source]

GDB: GNU dedugger, a portable debugger that runs on many Unix-like systems
GIC: Generic Interrupt Controller
GP: Geometry Processor, used to execute Vertex Shaders (3D IP/IC specific).
GPIO: General-Purpose Input/Output (A realization of open ended transmission between devices on an embedded level. These pins available on a processor can be programmed to be used to either accept input or provide output to external devices depending on user desires and applications requirements.)
GPGPU: General-Purpose computation on Graphics Processing Units
GPT: GUID Partition Table
GPU: Graphics Processing Units
GRALLOC: GRaphic ALLOCation HAL or library (Android specific)
GUI: Graphical User Interface

8. H[edit source]

HAL: Hardware Abstraction Layer
HDCP: High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDMI standard)
HDMI: High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI standard)
HDP: Hardware Debug Port
HDR: High Dynamic Range (HDMI standard)
HID: Human Interface Device (for USB, Bluetooth...)
HIDL: HAL interface definition language (see https://source.android.com/devices/architecture/hidl)
HMAC: Hash-based Message Authentication Code
HPD: Hot Plug Detect
HS: High Speed (MIPI^® Alliance DSI standard)
HSEM: Hardware Semaphore
HSE: High Speed External oscillator (STM32 clock source)
HSI: High Speed Internal oscillator (STM32 clock source) or High Speed Synchronous Serial Interface (MIPI^® Alliance standard)
HSLV: High Speed Low Voltage pin mode
HSM: Hardware security module

9. I[edit source]

I2C: Inter-Integrated Circuit (Bi-directional 2-wire bus standard for efficient inter-IC control.)
I2S: Integrated Interchip Sound

I2S (without the 2 in superscript) refers to the STMicroelectronics integrated interchip sound IP.

I420: fourcc of YUV420 planar pixel format
IDE: (Software)Integrated development/design/debugging environment
IFP: Image Formatting Pipeline
IIC: Inter-Integrated Circuit (Bi-directional 2-wire bus standard for efficient inter-IC control.)
IIO: Industrial I/O Linux^® subsystem
initramfs: Initial ramdisk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_ramdisk)
initrd: Initial ramdisk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_ramdisk)
IMU: Inertial Measurement Unit
IO: input/output
IoT: Internet of Things
IPC: Inter-Processor Communication
IPCC: Inter-Processor Communication Controller
IPP: Image Preprocessor Pipeline
ITM: Instruction Trace Macrocell
IWDG: Independent Watchdog

10. J[edit source]

JIT: Just-In-Time (Way of working for a given Virtual Machine)
JNI: Java Native Interface (for Android)
JTAG: debug and test protocol, named from the Joint Test Action Group that developed it

11. K[edit source]

KMS: Kernel Mode Setting

12. L[edit source]

LBA: Logical Block Addressing
LDISC: Line Discipline
LED: Light-emitting diode
LIN: Local Interconnect Network
Linux: Linux^® is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
LDO: Low-dropout regulator
LL: Low layer of STM32Cube
LP: Low Power (MIPI^® Alliance DSI standard)
LTDC: LCD TFT Display Controller (STM32 specific)
LPTIM: low-power timer (STM32 specific)
LSE: Low Speed External oscillator (STM32 clock source)
LSI: Low Speed Internal oscillator (STM32 clock source)

13. M[edit source]

MAC address: media access control address (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address)
MCU: Microcontroller Unit (MCUs have internal flash memory and are intended to operate with a minimum amount of external support ICs. They commonly are a self-contained, system-on-chip (SoC) designs.)
MD5: Message Digest 5
MFD: Multifunction device
microSD^TM;: eg microSD card ('m' in lowcase whatever its position)
Micro-AB: Micro-AB connector/port ('M' in uppercase whatever its position)
Micro-USB: eg Micro-USB connector ('M' in uppercase whatever its position)
MIPI: Mobile Industry Processor Interface, open membership organization that includes leading companies in the mobile industry that share the objective of defining and promoting open specifications for interfaces inside mobile terminals, see MIPI^® Alliance standard web site https://www.mipi.org
MMC: MultimediaCard
MMU: Memory Management Unit. (A hardware device or circuit that supports virtual memory and paging by translating virtual addresses into physical addresses.)
MPU: Microprocessor Unit
MQTT: Message Queuing Telemetry Transport

MTD: Memory Technology Device

14. N[edit source]

NA: Non Applicable
NDA: Non-disclosure agreement
NFC: Near Field Communication ( is a short-range wireless standard for communication over distances up to around 10cm that will enable enhanced services for users of NFC-enabled smart phones. These could include receiving coupons from retailers upon entering a store, or sharing contacts or photos, in addition to making mobile payments and collecting data from medical monitors, smart meters or other equipment containing ST’s dual-interface EEPROM. We produce a wireless memory that can transmit and receive information from the heart of an application to a smart phone containing NFC technology. NFC is expected to become a widely used system for making payments by smart phone in the United States and it is estimated that by 2015, 30.5% (iSupply) of all handsets shipped will contain NFC technology.)
NFS: Network File System (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_File_System)
NN: Neural Network
NV12: fourcc of YUV420 semi-planar pixel format
NVIC: Nested Vectored Interrupt Controller
NVM: Non Volatile Memory, like a flash memory

15. O[edit source]

OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer
OGL: Open Graphics Library (See http://www.opengl.org/ for more details)
OHCI: Open Host Controller Interface
ONFI: Open NAND Flash interface (The ONFI working group, acronym for Open NAND Flash Interface, was founded in 2005. The group’s mission consists in creating a common industry standard for NAND Flash interfaces, to simplify integration of NAND Flash memory into consumer electronics (CE) devices and computing platforms. ST is one of the co-founder companies together with Hynix, Intel, Micron, Phison and Sony.)
OOM: Out Of Memory
OPC UA: Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture

OpenCL: Open Computing Language (See http://www.opencl.org/ for more details)
OpenGL: Open Graphics Library (See http://www.opengl.org/ for more details)
OpenGLES: Open Graphics Library for Embedded System (See http://www.khronos.org/opengles/ for more details)
OpenVG: Open Vector Graphics (See http://www.khronos.org/openvg/ for more details)
OPP: Operating Performance Point (link to voltage and frequency scaling)
OP-TEE: Open Portable Trusted Execution Environment
OS: Operating System
OSS: Open Source Software
OST: Open System Trace
OTG: USB On-The-Go (Capability/type of USB port, acting primarily as USB device, to also act as USB host. Also known as USB OTG.)
OTP: One Time Programmed

16. P[edit source]

PCB: Printed Circuit Board
PEM: Privacy Enhanced Mail (File format for storing and sending cryptographic keys, certificates, and other data)
PIE: Position-Independent Executable - NEW
PKH: Public Key Hash, used for secure boot - NEW
PLB: Polygon List Builder (3D IP/IC specific)
PMIC: Power Management Integrated Circuit
PMU: Power Management Unit (in STPMIC context) or Performance Monitoring Unit (in Arm^® Cortex^®-A context)
POSIX: Portable Operating System Interface based on uniX (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POSIX_terminal_interface for more details)
POT: Power Of Two (could be linked to Graphics, like in OpenGL textures)
PP: Pixel Processor, used to execute Fragment Shaders (3D IP/IC specific)
procfs: Process File System (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procfs for more details)
PSCI: Power State Coordination Interface
PVD: Programmable Voltage Detector
PWM: Pulse Width Modulation

17. Q[edit source]

18. R[edit source]

RAM: Random Access Memory (Early computer memories generally hadserial access. Memories where any given address can be accessed when desired were then called "random access" to distinguish them from the memories where contents can only be accessed in a fixed order. The term is used today for volatile random-acces ssemiconductor memories.)

RCC: Reset and Clock Control
REGMAP: Register map (Linux^® registers map abstraction API)
RMA: Return Materials Authorization
RNG: Random Number Generator
ro: Read Only
ROM: Read Only Memory
RPMsg: Remote Processor Messaging
RSE: Remote System Explorer (Eclipse Perceptive)
RTC: Real Time Clock
RTOS: Real Time Operating System
RX: Receive

19. S[edit source]

SAI: Serial Audio Interface (Mechanism used to transfer non-buffered audio data between processors and/or audio converters.)
SCL: Serial clock line
SCMI: System control and management interface
SCP: Secure coprocessor

SD: Secure digital
SDA: Serial DAta line
SD card: SD memory card (https://www.sdcard.org)
SDIO: Secure digital input/output
SDIO card: SDIO is an SD-size card with extended input/output functions
SDK: Software development kit (A programming package that enables a programmer to develop applications for a specific platform.)
Serdev: Serial device bus
SFR: Special Function Registers
SGI: Software Generated Interrupt
SHA: Secure Hash Algorithm
SiP: Silicon Provider
SLC: Single-Level Cell is a kind of NAND flash
SMC: Secure Monitor Call
SMCCC: secure monitor call (SMC) calling convention

SMBus: System Management Bus
SMP: symetric multiprocessing
SOM: System-On-Module
SOT: Start Of Transmission (MIPI^® Alliance DSI standard)
S/PDIF: Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format (Protocol (IEC-60958))
SP-MIN: Secure Payload minimal
SP_min: Secure Payload minimal
SP_min: Secure Payload minimal
SPI: Serial Peripheral Interface
SPL: Secondary Program Loader, Also known as U-Boot SPL
SSBL: Second Stage Boot Loader
SSP: Secure secrets provisioning

STGEN: System Time Generator
ST-Link: spelling for older versions of STLink, ST in-circuit debugger and programmer for the STM8 and STM32 microcontroller families
STLink: ST in-circuit debugger and programmer for the STM8 and STM32 microcontroller families (See ST-LINK for more details)
STM: System Trace Module
STM32Series: stm32mp1
STP: System Trace Protocol (MIPI^® Alliance standard specifying the protocol to carry above system traces)
SSP: Secure Secret Provisioning
SYSCFG: System Configuration
sysfs: System File System (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sysfs for more details)
SYSTICK: System Tick
SWD: Serial Wire Debug
SWIM: Single Wire Interface Module (debug protocol for STM8 microcontrollers)

20. T[edit source]

TA: Trusted Application
TAF: Trusted Application Function
TAMP: Tamper
TBG: Test Byte Generator, part of DSI, used to generate - on CPU demand - a stream of byte to the DSI D-PHY. The goal is to perform basic DSI D-PHY lane check
TCG: Trusted Computing Group
TCM: Tightly Coupled Memory
TDES: Triple Data Encryption Standard
TEE: Trusted Execution Environment
termios: terminal input output structure
TF-A: Trusted Firmware for Arm^® Cortex^®-A
TFTP: Trivial File Transfer Protocol (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivial_File_Transfer_Protocol)
TPM: Trusted Platform Module
TrEQ: Transducer Equalizer
TSS: TPM Software Stack
TTY: TeleTYpewriter
TVG: Test Video Generator, part of DSI, used to generate a video stream automatically (for verification and validation task)
TX: Transmit
TrustZone: TrustZone^®
Arm^® and TrustZone^® are registered trademarks of Arm Limited (or its subsidiaries) in the US and/or elsewhere.
TZ: TrustZone^®
Arm^® and TrustZone^® are registered trademarks of Arm Limited (or its subsidiaries) in the US and/or elsewhere.
TZC: TrustZone^® address space Controller for DDR
Arm^® and TrustZone^® are registered trademarks of Arm Limited (or its subsidiaries) in the US and/or elsewhere.

21. U[edit source]

UART: Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter
UBI: Unsorted block images
UDC: USB Device Controller
UI: User Interface
UMS: User-space Mode Setting
µClinux: The letters "μC" are for "microcontroller", the name is pronounced "you-see-Linux" (http://www.uclinux.org/)
UP: uniprocessor
U-Boot: Das U-Boot -- the Universal Boot Loader (see U-Boot_overview)
USART: Universal Synchronous/Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter
USBH: USB Host (STM32 specific)
USB Type-A: USB port or connector
USB Type-C: USB port or connector
UTMI: USB 2.0 Transceiver Macrocell Interface
USB On-The-Go: Capability/type of USB port, acting primarily as USB device, to also act as USB host. Also known as USB OTG.
UUID: universally unique identifier (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universally_unique_identifier)
UVC: USB Video Class

22. V[edit source]

V4L2: Video 4 Linux^® version 2
VCP: Virtual COM Port. ST-Link Console support
VESA: Video Electronics Standards Association
VFS: Virtual File System
VLAN: Virtual LAN. Network of computers that behave as if they are connected to the same wire even though they may actually be physically located on different segments of a LAN
VREFBUF: voltage reference buffer (STM32 specific)
VTS: Vendor Test Suite (Android specific)

23. W[edit source]

Wi-Fi: technology for wireless local area networking with devices based on the IEEE 802.11 standards

24. X[edit source]

XIP: Execute In Place. Method of executing programs directly from long term storage rather than copying it into RAM (linked to NOR Flash).
XTI: Protocol specifying a way to define OST frame boundary and to support trace activation using uart channel.

25. Y[edit source]

YAVTA: Yet Another V4L2 Test Application (V4L2 standard)
Yocto Project^®: The Linux Foundation® and Yocto Project® are registered trademarks of the Linux Foundation. Linux® is a registered trademark of Linux Torvalds
Yocto Project: The Linux Foundation® and Yocto Project® are registered trademarks of the Linux Foundation. Linux® is a registered trademark of Linux Torvalds