terminator Last modified: Tuesday, March 12, 2002
(1) A device attached to the end-points of a bus network or daisy-chain. The purpose of the terminator is to absorb signals so that they do not reflect back down the line. Ethernet networks require a terminator at both ends of the bus, and SCSI chains require a single terminator at the end of the chain. (2) A character that indicates the end of a string. In the C programming language, the null character serves as a terminator.

Related Terms

bus network character string daisy chain null character