Analog data to analog signal

Analog signals are continuous, whereas digital signals are sequences of on-off states (or hole/no-
hole in the case of punched tape or cards) that represent binary ones and zeros.

The most familiar example of an analog signal is the telephone. When we speak (sing, yell, yodel, or
otherwise make a noise) the immediate result is the production of air waves. When those air waves
arrive at an ear drum they are converted to perceived sound. In ships, voice communication between
bridge and engine room was achieved by shouting down a pipe that enabled the passage of sound
waves - "I telegraphed full speed astern, you stupid bathtub, not full speed ahead".

The telephone employs a microphone to convert air waves to analogous (that is, of a similar nature)
electrical waves that travel over copper wire to be converted back to air waves at the receiving end.

In order for non-audio data to be sent over an analog telephone line it has to be converted to an
analog signal. That's why we use modems. The conversion is achieved by a process of MODulation.
At the receiving end the modulated data has to be DEModulated in order to return it to digital
format. Hence the name, MODEM.

Large parts of the telephone system are now digital, but the bit between your handset and the
exchange is still analog. A telephone conversation starts out as an analog signal, is usually converted
along the way to a digital signal, and finally back to analog. In fact there may be a number of
conversions, depending on the nodes (exchanges) through which the signal passes. Both digital data
and analog signals may go through a number of back-and-forth conversions during their respective
journeys.

The modem is not the only solution to digital-analog analog-digital conversion. There are many
devices and methods, often incorporating specialised codec (compression/decompression)
algorithms. After all, one of the reasons for going digital is the benefit of data compression.

There are many analog examples; thermometers with liquid in a sealed column, dial-type
speedometers, odometers (even though they display digits), and clocks (even though they, too, might
display digits). Digital versions of those devices are becoming commonplace, but they still acquire
data from an analog source; a converter is employed to present read-outs on a digital display, or to
send data to a processor.

In fact, many of these are not really digital; the appearance of the display may suggest a digital
system, but the numbers are clicked over by an analog device.

Computer-controlled industrial processes rely on a number of inputs - such as temperature, pressure,

position and process rate-measured by analog devices that typically convert their respective signals
to variable current. That, in turn, is converted to digital data readable by a controlling computer,
which in turn processes the information and sends instructions back to the machines (where it may
require digital analog conversion).

There's nothing new about that; in precomputer days it was all done with mechanical detection and
control systems.

A simple example: A telephone line is designed for transferring audible sounds, for example tones,
and not digital bits (zeros and ones). Computers may however communicate over a telephone line by
means of modems, which are representing the digital bits by tones, called symbols. You could say
that modems play music for each other. If there are four alternative symbols (corresponding to a
musical instrument that can generate four different tones, one at a time), the first symbol may
represent the bit sequence 00, the second 01, the third 10 and the fourth 11. If the modem plays a
melody consisting of 1000 tones per second, the symbol rate is 1000 symbols/second, or baud. Since
each tone represents a message consisting of two digital bits in this example, the bit rate is twice the
symbol rate, i.e. 2000 bit per second

Digital data to analog signal

In electronics, a digital-to-analog converter (DAC or D-to-A) is a device for converting a digital
(usually binary) code to an analog signal (current, voltage or electric charge). Digital-to-analog
converters are interfaces between the abstract digital world and analog real life.

An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) performs the reverse operation.

Digital data represents the computer world, where everything has discrete values, 1’s and 0’s, and
ON and OFF signals. Digital data have no values between 0 and 1.

Converting digital data to an analog signal requires a process called modulation. There are three
common modulation methods:
 Amplitude modulation varies the height of the signal to show a 1 and a o. this method is
reliable up to speeds of 1200bps.
 Frequency modulation uses a higher frequency for 1 and a lower frequency for 0 (or vice
versa). Frequency modulation is more tolerant of noisy lines than amplitude modulation.
 Phase modulation changes the phase of the signal (compared to a standard reference
signal) \when there is a changer form a 1 to a 0 or from a 0 to a 1.

Digital data to digital signal

Digital data 0’s and 1’s, can be changed to a digital signal by using different voltage levels. There are
few problems with this form of transmission as both the sender and receiver talk the same simple
language. One computer on a network is able to communicate directly to another computer.

Analog data to digital signal

An analog-to-digital converter (abbreviated ADC, A/D or A to D) is an electronic integrated
circuit (i/c) that converts continuous signals to discrete digital numbers. The reverse operation is
performed by a digital-to-analog converter (DAC).

Typically, an ADC is an electronic device that converts an input analog voltage (or current ) to a
digital number. The digital output may be using different coding schemes, such as binary and two's
complement binary.

Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a digital representation of an analog signal where the magnitude
of the signal is sampled regularly at uniform intervals, then quantized to a series of symbols in a
digital (usually binary) code. PCM has been used in digital telephone systems and is also the
standard form for digital audio in computers and the compact disc red book format. It is also
standard in digital video. However, straight PCM is not typically used for video in consumer
applications such as DVD or DVR because it requires too high a bit rate (PCM audio is supported by
the DVD standard but rarely used). Instead, compressed variants of PCM are normally employed.
However, many Blu-ray Disc movies use uncompressed PCM for audio. Very frequently, PCM
encoding facilitates digital transmission from one point to another (within a given system, or
geographically) in serial form