Digital Control

Analog Control

No signal losses due to DA and AD conversion

Geometry, clock and phase settings

Compatible with standard VGA boards on a broad installed PC basis

Advantages

unnecessary, therefore simple to use

Not necessary to purchase a new graphics board

Lower costs as less electronic circuitry required

Clock and phase of the TFTs must be synchronized with the analog signal to avoid pixel jitter, which is a relatively complex issue

Currently three standards (P&D, DFP and DVI)

Disadvantages

Low availability of models with digital interfaces

Cables sensitive to external influences High cost of signal conversion inside the display

Requires graphic board with digital output

Upgrade to digital interface not possible

The signal processing operations involved in many applications like communication systems, control systems, instrumentation, biomedical signal processing etc can be implemented in two different ways (1) Analog or continuous time method and (2) Digital or discrete time method. The analog approach to signal processing was dominant for many years. The analog signal processing uses analog circuit elements such as resistors, capacitors, transistors, diodes etc. With the advent of digital computer and later microprocessor, the digital signal processing has become dominant now a days. The analog signal processing is based on natural ability of the analog system to solve differential equations the describe a physical system. The solution are obtained in real time. In contrast digital signal processing relies on numerical calculations. The method may or may not give results in real time. The digital approach has two main advantages over analog approach (1) Flexibility: Same hardware can be used to do various kind of signal processing operation,while in the core of analog signal processing one has to design a system for each kind of operation. (2) Repeatability: The same signal processing operation can be repeated again and again giving same results, while in analog systems there may be parameter variation due to change in temperature or supply voltage. The choice between analog or digital signal processing depends on application. One has to compare design time,size and cost of the implementation.

Comparison chart</> Embed this chart

Analog
Analog signal is a continuous Signal signal which represents physical measurements.
Waves

Digital
Digital signals are discrete time signals generated by digital modulation. Denoted by square waves Uses discrete or discontinuous values to represent information Computers, CDs, DVDs, and other digital electronic devices. Samples analog waveforms into a limited set of numbers and records them. Can be noise-immune without deterioration during transmission and write/read cycle. Less affected since noise response are analog in nature Digital hardware is flexible in implementation. Best suited for Computing and digital electronics. PCs, PDAs There is no guarantee that digital signal processing can be done in real time and consumes more bandwidth to carry out the same information. Stored in the form of binary bit

Denoted by sine waves

Uses continuous range of Representation values to represent information

Example

Human voice in air, analog electronic devices.

Analog technology records Technology waveforms as they are. Subjected to deterioration by noise during transmission and transmissions write/read cycle.
Data Response to

More likely to get affected Noise reducing accuracy Analog hardware is not flexible.

Flexibility

Can be used in analog devices Uses only. Best suited for audio and video transmission.
Applications

Thermometer

Analog signal processing can be done in real time and Bandwidth consumes less bandwidth.

Memory

Stored in the form of wave

Analog
signal
Power Cost Impedance

Digital

Analog instrument draws large power Low cost and portable Low

Digital instrument drawS only negligible power Cost is high and not easily portable High order of 100 megaohm Digital instruments are free from observational errors like parallax and approximation errors.

Analog instruments usually have a scale which is cramped Errors at lower end and give considerable observational errors.

Definition of Digital - A method of storing, processing and transmitting information through the use of distinct electronic or optical pulses that represent the binary digits 0 and 1. Advantages of Digital ? Less expensive ? More reliable ? Easy to manipulate ? Flexible ? Compatibility with other digital systems ? Only digitised information can be transported through a noisy channel without degradation ? Integrated networks Disadvantages of Digital ? Sampling Error ? Digital communications require greater bandwidth than analogue to transmit the same information. ? The detection of digital signals requires the communications system to be synchronised, whereas generally speaking this is not the case with analogue systems. Definition of Analogue Analogue is a transmission standard that uses electrical impulses to emulate the audio waveform of sound. When you use a phone, the variations in your voice are transformed by a microphone into similar variations in an electrical signal and carried down the line to the exchange. Advantages of Analogue ? Uses less bandwidth ? More accurate Disadvantages of Analogue ? The effects of random noise can make signal loss and distortion impossible to recover Read more: What are the advantages and disadvantages of analog vs. digital communication? | Answerbag http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/31169#ixzz2nLg8It6D

Digital Signal Processing Guide

What do we mean by signal processing?
Signal processing involves the mathematical representation of a signal and the algorithmic operations carried out on it to extract or enhance the information contained in the signal of interest.

Why use digital signal processing?

Limitations of analogue techniques
Time drift Temperature drift Loading effects between stages of a circuit Analogue techniques are sensitive to component tolerances (some components such as capacitors have large tolerances) Post processing limitations - difficult to store an analogue signal for a long time without loss of information

Advantages of digital techniques

No time and temperature drift (but clocks used in DSP hardware are analogue components and have time and temperature drift) No loading effects between stages No sensitivity to component tolerance (but DSP is sensitive to coefficient quantisation noise) Easy to adapt/update/reconfigure the system (flexibility) Long-term storage for future reference without loss of information Bandwidth utilisation for signal transmission by using time division multiplexing

Disadvantages of digital techniques

Still need analogue circuitry (and this circuitry limits the performance) Limited range of frequencies available for processing (sampling theorem)] The digital circuitry requires large space in an integrated circuit and has large power consumption Loss of information due to quantisation Reliability (there is no widely acceptable definition of DSP software reliability)

Why it's important to measurement scientists

Signal processing, particularly digital signal processing (DSP), is ubiquitous in modern measurement science. Almost all physical events of interest to scientists are ultimately converted (or transduced) to an electrical signal which is then sampled, digitised and downloaded into a computer. In addition, much modern data acquisition and analysis software contains built-in functions for processes such as windowing,filtering and transforming signals that can be treated as "black boxes" by the user. Digital signal conditioning and processing underpins almost all electrically-based measurements and new developments in Information and Communications Technology in the UK economy. Digitised measurements are omnipresent throughout technology; in any measurement or control application where it is necessary to obtain a correct measurement of the parameters of complex (real-world rather than simplified ideal-world) waveforms, digitisation and DSP are required within an uncertainties framework.

The challenges that DSP presents to measurement scientists

As a result of uninformed use of the highly sophisticated measurement software that is available today, there is a potential to introduce artefacts and additional sources of uncertainty into the results of measurements if the scientist

using these tools is not aware of the limitations of the applied methods. Choice of hardware and firmware introduces further complications, so that the effects of resolution, sampling synchronization and sampling jitter require analysis. Finally, many sensors with frequency-dependent properties are calibrated by deriving their impulse response from comparisons of output and input signals using convolution and deconvolution methods. Such methods need care if one requires a reliable determination of the amplitude and phase response of the sensor in question.

How NPL's mathematicians and software specialists help solve signal processing problems
We advocate a software engineering approach to signal processing that emphasises the need for a clear definition of the problem, good choice of algorithms and of numerical methods, and rigorous testing. We recognise that uncertainties that arise from the choice and implementation of signal processing techniques are often not studied systematically and uncertainty budgets may omit contributions arising from these sources. We aim to provide support, good practice guidance and signal processing tools that will ensure that good practice can be adopted by metrologists in an easily-implementable manner, which can allow them to concentrate on their measurements results with the confidence that the uncertainties arising from their chosen signal processing techniques have been accurately quantified.

Learning more about signal processing in measurement science

We are developing resources and identifying sources of information that can be used by measurement scientists, industrial scientists and engineers, teachers and other interested individuals to learn about signal processing, to help select appropriate signal processing methods that will be suitable for specific measurement tasks and to support informed selection of hardware and software. This web-based set of resources and links aims to meet these requirements. The good-practice resources are mainly concerned with one-dimensional signals such as those that are a function of time, but much of the material is also relevant to two-dimensional signals, including images. Topics covered include: Uncertainty evaluation when using DSP. The use of analogue signal conditioning techniques, including amplification, noise reduction andfiltering. The advantages and disadvantages of analogue techniques, as compared with digital methods. Limitations of equipment, especially those with on-board digitisation facilities. The effects of digitisation. Validation of DSP software, including testing its numerical adequacy the estimation of uncertaintiesassociated with the measurement of complex quantities (real and imaginary, or amplitude and phase).

Digital Signal Processing Good Practice Guide

Analog and Digital Signals

Sound is naturally an analog signal. An analog signal is continuous, meaning that there are no breaks or interruptions. One moment flows into the next. If you were to hum a descending note, people hearing you would be able to detect the change in pitch, but not point to specific moments when the pitch jumped from one note to the next. Digital signals are not continuous. They use specific values to represent information. In the case of sound, that means representing a sound wave as a series of values that represent pitch and volume over the length of the recording. In a primitive digital recording of that descending note you hummed, you'd hear a single long sound as a collection of shorter sounds. Some audiophiles argue that because analog recording methods are continuous, they are better at capturing a true representation of sound. Digital recordings can miss subtle nuances. But as digital recording processes improve, digital devices can use higher sampling rates with greater precision. Although the signal still isn't continuous, the high sampling rate can create a sound similar to the original source. Before the 1970s, musicians recorded their performances on analog recording equipment. Microphonesrecording the sound generated an analog wave that other devices would then transfer directly to the proper media (usually magnetic tape). Assuming the recording artist used reliable equipment, the sound recorded was an accurate representation of the original sound. With digital recording, audio engineers convert analog waves into digital signals. There are many different kinds of equipment that can convert analog to digital. Some audio studios record a performance on an analog master tape first, then transfer the sound to a digital format. Others will use special equipment to record directly to digital. Early digital recordings sacrificed fidelity, or sound quality, in favor of reliability. One of the drawbacks of an analog format is that analog media tends to wear down. Vinyl albums can warp or get scratched, which can dramatically impact sound quality. Magnetic tape eventually wears out and is vulnerable to magnets, which can erase or destroy information stored on the tape. Digital media like compact discs can reproduce sound indefinitely. Another advantage digital media has over analog is that you can make as many copies of the original sound file as you like without hurting it. Eventually, even an analog master recording isn't going to sound as good as the original performance. As long as nothing corrupts a digital file, it will stay the same no matter how much time has passed or how many copies engineers make. Today, technology in the audio recording industry is so advanced that many audio engineers will tell you there's no detectable difference between analog and digital recordings. Even if you were to use the best stereo equipment, you shouldn't be able to identify one medium versus the other just by listening to the sound. Many audiophiles disagree and claim that the analog format is still supreme.

So what are the arguments that audiophiles use to support their love of the analog format? Find out in the next section.

You have probably heard the word "digital" used in many different contexts: digital camera, digital phone, and, of course, digital watches. While at first glance these three technologies appear quite different, the digital preface means the same thing in each technology. Digital refers to the discrete resolution of information. For example, a digital watch provides the hour, the minute, and usually the second. But that is where the information ends. It is not possible to determine the time up to a hundredth of a second on a digital watch that expresses time only to the second. In an traditional, or analog, watch, measuring small amounts of time might be difficult, but it is possible in principle to measure the time essentially as accurately as is desired. For cameras, the difference is in the picture. A high-resolution digital camera can store a photo on thousands of extremely small pixels, but the image is still in discrete pieces. A traditional camera stores the photo in continually-varying intensities on film. In digital phones, or digital music recording, the sound is broken into discrete pieces. Analog phones and LPs can transmit and store continually varying signals. The digital signal can approach the analog signal if the pieces are made arbitrarily narrow, but it will never be completely as smooth as the analog signal. The figure below illustrates the differences between analog and digital signals.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Analog and Digital The figure above may give the impression that digital is not as good as analog. But that is not necessarily the case. Increasing the number (and decreasing the size) of the time divisions in a digital signal can make the digital signal nearly as smooth as an analog signal. And digital signals are much easier to store than analog signals and are much less prone to degradation. By definition, each piece of information in a digital signal is a number, easily distinguished from other numbers. One analogy for a digital signal could be a table of numbers. A comparable analogy for an analog signal would be a graph. It is much easier to accurately copy a table than a graph. And once they have been copied several times, the table has a good chance of staying unchanged while the graph will probably look quite different.