How Can Digital Beat Analog?
Posted: 28. August 2011 06:46As a budding computer engineer in the 80s, I studied electronics.
Analog transmission would carry as many values as the voltage differences would allow. And binary transmission means a bunch of zeros and ones
For instance in analog transmission, if I wanted to transmit the number 254, I would simply send it as 3 digits, a two and a five and a four. But in digital, specifically binary transmission, it would have to be 8 digits, i.e. 11111110, i.e., a series of seven ones and then followed by one zero.
I have been talking about binary transmission when talking about digital, because they are not the same thing. Binary transmission is just one type of digital transmission. There can be many others. For instance there can be trinary, which would transmit zeroes, ones, and twos. You get the idea.
But binary clearly rules. This is because, in creating electronic circuits, you can very easily create switching circuits that will have a high voltage, i.e., a one and a low voltage, i.e., a zero.
So, back to the original question. Why is analog not as good as digital? Are we missing something? Did out engineering teachers miss out on teaching us about some important part of the deal here? For instance, could it be about economics and not about electronics at all? See more..
Analog transmission would carry as many values as the voltage differences would allow. And binary transmission means a bunch of zeros and ones
For instance in analog transmission, if I wanted to transmit the number 254, I would simply send it as 3 digits, a two and a five and a four. But in digital, specifically binary transmission, it would have to be 8 digits, i.e. 11111110, i.e., a series of seven ones and then followed by one zero.
I have been talking about binary transmission when talking about digital, because they are not the same thing. Binary transmission is just one type of digital transmission. There can be many others. For instance there can be trinary, which would transmit zeroes, ones, and twos. You get the idea.
But binary clearly rules. This is because, in creating electronic circuits, you can very easily create switching circuits that will have a high voltage, i.e., a one and a low voltage, i.e., a zero.
So, back to the original question. Why is analog not as good as digital? Are we missing something? Did out engineering teachers miss out on teaching us about some important part of the deal here? For instance, could it be about economics and not about electronics at all? See more..
