B70-3 Analog-to-Digital and Digital-to-Analog Conversion Techniques

Abstract

During the sixties we witnessed the fulfillment of the semiconductor prophecies of the fifties. Semiconductor technology stimulated, and at the same time united, the worlds of computing, communications, and control. Today in all three areas we find many cases where signal processing and transmission can be performed most economically by digital means. As we move into the seventies, the decade when the ballyhoo and promise of integrated circuits and LSI should become a reality, it is apparent that the pace of digitalization will quicken. To reap the rewards attendant to digital processing one must become familiar with the bridge between the worlds of the analoger and the digitaler. Hoeschle has provided a guide for the user or builder of this bridge and the toll ($12.95) is reasonable. At a minimum, it will help the user make a more intelligent choice from among the about 130 (as of the end of 1969) manufacturers of A to D or D to A converters. In addition, it should serve as a "how to" book for the designer of the relatively low-speed medium-accuracy type of converter. As the last word in the title implies, emphasis is placed on techniques rather than theory. Thus, the book is directed primarily at the hardware oriented engineering audience. Theoreticians used to dealing with quantization noise for random signals, optimum quantizers, and the like might find this book a useful vehicle for contacting the real world.