Device - General properties of devices.
Devices are elements that inject signals into a network (stimulating
devices) or record data from it (recording devices). The specific
properties of these classes of devices are documents in separate
documents for each of these two classes, and the specific devices.
This page only documents general properties.
The only general properties for all devices are activation and
inactivation times. These are controlled by the parameters start, stop
and origin. Briefly speaking a device is active from start to stop,
while origin provides a global offset, i.e., actual start and stop
times are origin+start and origin+stop. This can be used to implement
experiment repetitions, where only origin needs to be increased.
The precise meaning of start and stop depends on the type of the
device and is documented in the specific documentation pages. Generally
speaking, any device emitting signals will emit signals in [start, stop),
while a recording device will pick up signals with time stamps
(start, stop].
In general, the following must hold:
1. start+origin > 0
2. stop >= start
3. If stop == start, the device is inactive.
/start - Actication time, relative to origin.
/stop - Inactivation time, relative to origin.
/origin - Reference time for start and stop.
/var/www/debian/nest/nest-simulator-2.20.0/nestkernel/device.h