essentially correct, except of course that when you convert from digital to analog it's a D/A converter. both are widely used, often in pairs so a real world (analog) signal can be processed and spat back out. satellite and digital cable systems use an A/D converters to convert the video and sound to digital form, and D/A converters in the receiver to produce signals for the tv/sound system (digital has some advantages for data transmission), they are also used in digital cell phones and such and in most surround sound systems.
in this case, they are meant primarily for lab type use, though they could handle sound to some extent, though the ones i have are far too slow to handle video signals so no video recording with them (oh yeah, DVR's and tivo also convert both ways, using digital to store video/sound on an ordinary hard drive). it's one of the neater tricks for solving a number of problems, though of course there is always some signal degradation (any processing you do to a signal will degrade it somewhat). they are also widely used in industrial settings to monitor/control equipment and processes, like how much water is flowing, how fast a belt is moving, how much something weighs etc. with added electronics, they could also be used for things like recording brain waves, seismic activity, pollutant levels, and like that. note that the very first computers were analog, and some computers or parts of computer systems in some applications still do some calculations with analog circuits (you can actually build analog circuits to add, multiply, divide, square, and square root and such an analog input producing a related analog output). i suppose one of the most common and specialized A/D converters is the digital watch, turning analog time into digital time for display. "Byron Q. Desnoyers Winmill" wrote: ------- > From my experience, an A/D converter is usually used for data > acquisition in a laboratory setting: if you want to measure the > temperature of something, you would find a device which converts a > temperature into a "voltage" and an A/D converter would convert that > voltage into digital data which the computer can handle. Similarly, > you may want to use the computer to control something (like a motor). > In that case, you could use an A/D converter to create a "voltage" > which controls the speed of the motor. > ----------- -- Apple2list is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... / Buy books, CDs, videos, and more from Amazon.com \ / <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/lowendmac> \ Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Apple2list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/apple2.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/apple2list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
