stupid rookie questions. need definitions

[imjessica]

Hey Im from a rookie team in san francisco. Im head of electronics and itd be nice to know what all these are. In simple terms!! Dont say "The Digital Sidecar is a breakout module that is designed to adapt a single cRIO 9403 32-channel digital I/O module blah blah blah" Thanks!

Digital Sidecar
Is it in any way wired to the speed controllers or the cRio, or does it only recieve and emit signals to those?
What does I/O mean? input/output?
What is a breakout module?
What is a compression? (if it has to do with pneumatics then idc)
Should I find out what the converter and d-link does or is it enough to just know wire the converter to the pd board and the router to the converter?
How do solenoids connect to the rest of the circuit and what is their role?
Any other really basic explanations on how stuff connects would be useful