Glossary

Electronic Circuit Building Blocks(n.) - The concept of being able to design, build and test circuit blocks and then connect them together. Many people have called SchmartBoards "Legos' for engineers" due to this aspect.

Electronics for Everyone - This is SchmartBoard's mission statement. Our goal is to make electronics available to more people regardless of age, sex, experience, or location.

Schmart(adj.) - This term describes people who use the SchmartBoard system for electronic circuit design, fabrication, and verification.

SchmartBoard(n., v.) - This is both the name of the company and of our system developed to make prototyping easier. It is also the action of using SchmartBoard to prototype.(i.e. I'll SchmartBoard the circuit this week.)

SchmartBoard|ez(n.) - This is SchmartBoard's new type of boards that allows virtually anyone to hand-solder ICs, Chipscale, and BGA.

SchmartBridge(n.) - These are small plastic pieces that allow one to connect any boards on the SchmartPlatform together. These include any SchmartBoard product or third party products that have been SchmartPlatform approved.

SchmartCanal(n.) - This is the innovation that makes SchmartBoard|ez so easy to use. These boards have canals that both allow one to place the surface mount components on the boards correctly and then to hand-solder without creating short circuits.

SchmartCircuit Schematic(n.) - These are schematics that have been designed specifically for assembly on SchmartBoards. SchmartDevelopers design schematics based on this standard. They are posted on the SchmarDeveloper Web site

SchmartDeveloper(n.) - A person who designs SchmartCircuit schematics and posts them on the SchmarDeveloper Web site. There are three levels of SchmarDevelopers: authorized, certified and master.

SchmartModule(n.) - SchmartModules are circuit blocks for specific functionality. They come as either populated, or un-populated. Unpopulated SchmartModules come with a parts list and the user populates the board. This is generally done to allow the user to source more expensive parts. Populated boards have all of the parts and are fully functional out of the box.

SchmartNotches(n.) - These are the notches on the side of SchmartBoards or products from SchmartPlatform Partners that allow them to be connected together using SchmartBridges.

SchmartPlatform(n.) - The SchmartPlatform is the concept of connecting circuit blocks together. Any circuit board, whether from SchmartBoard or an outside company that has SchmartNotches are in the SchmartPlatform.

SchmartPlatform Partner(n.) - Any company who has been authorized by SchmartBoard to put SchmartNotches on there on their product, thus allowing people to connect other SchmartPlatform products to it, utilizing the SchmartBridge.

SchmartTrace(n.) - SchmartBoards are all pre-traced. This means that unlike many other boards, one does not need jumpers in between every component. With the SchmartTrace technology jumpers are minimized, making the boards much easier to work with and cleaner.

Surface Mount Components(n.) - These are components in which the electrical connections are made on a conductive pad on the printed circuit board. These components are very difficult to hand place and solder on printed circuit board. SchmartBoard|ez was invented to resolve this issue.

Through-Hole Components(n.) - These are the older type of components in which connections are made from metal leads that are threaded through conductive holes in the printed circuit board and then soldered. All SchmartBoards also support these types of components as well.