Chapter 13. Analog-to-Digital and Vice Versa

Setting the scene

As we began our discussions in Chapter 1: Analog Versus Digital by separating the analog and digital views of the world, it seems appropriate to close this section of the book by reuniting them.

In the early days of electronics, systems were predominantly analog in nature.[1] Today, analog functions are still used for a wide variety of tasks, but digital implementations are preferable in many cases.

1 I remember playing with analog computers at college, for example.

Why might a digital system be preferable to its analog counterpart? Well, as a simple example, let's cast our minds back into the mists of time and consider VHS video tapes, which were analog in nature.[2] By this ...

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