The Death of Analog

[c4757p]

Then I hit signal integrity issues, welcome back analogue... but hang on a minute, why on earth is nearly all the text on this subject alluding to it as some kind of "black magic"?

For the same reason many of the rest of us think RF is black magic. Lack of interest combined with the perception that it doesn't matter as long as someone gets it done.

[Psi]

I think it's true to say that in the future digital will play a bigger and bigger role in the task of an engineer building a product.
Where as analog will be more concentrated in the R&D, design and manufacturing of those digital components.

[Mechatrommer]

Where as analog will be more concentrated in the R&D, design and manufacturing of those digital components.

hence analog will not die. if analog die, digital will die. btw, the claim that the world is analog is questionable. what if its actually digital? in super miniscule scale (alot lot smaller than a quark) that we are unable to perceive? that we can only perceive that this world is an "apparent analog"

[Psi]

Yep, it cant die, but from the perspective of an engineer working in a company building products it may die if they no longer work with analog.

It's not all that surprising that as the field of electronics matures various areas will separate and stand on their own.
We could easy end up with analog and digital becoming totally separate in qualifications and people working in just that area.
The same way other things have separated, like computers into programming, networking, databases, web.

If there is enough scope for people to specialize then that specialization will push the areas further apart.

[Mechatrommer]

thats not dying, thats branching, the point that i was trying to highlight. each area will be localized, but not dead. just like religion and science once was (not again). more and more people think that science is "entirely" separated from religion (no i'm not talking about religions that made lies). and btw, no we cannot equate between (vacuum-tube vs transistor) and (analog vs digital) transistor tries to do what vacuum did, so vacuum is superceeded and obsolete. but digital is not trying to do what analog do, this ee disciplines just, "branches".

[Psi]

but digital is not trying to do what analog do,

Not yet, but maybe.. if new semiconductor technology (maybe graphene) make cheap 32bit ADC, DAC, MCUs that can run in the many GHz's range you could make an opamp that works digitally inside and overcomes some of the annoying properties of analog opamps.

[lewis]

This whole thread is moot

Since one meaning of moot is "subject to debate", that's very true.

there is no such thing as digital.

That rather depends on the domain of discourse, doesn't it?

I don't know enough about Planck time and elementary charge to comment. But what's a logical 1?

[rolycat]

there is no such thing as digital.

That rather depends on the domain of discourse, doesn't it?

I don't know enough about Planck time and elementary charge to comment.

Me neither 

But what's a logical 1?

The negation of a logical 0?

[AlfBaz]

Can you punctuate this so it makes sense? Alan while John had had had had had had had had had had had the better effect on the teacher

This has been bothering me for a while, so here's my attempt
"Alan while John had had had had had had had had had had had the better effect on the teacher", he stuttered...

[lewis]

Can you punctuate this so it makes sense? Alan while John had had had had had had had had had had had the better effect on the teacher

This has been bothering me for a while, so here's my attempt
"Alan while John had had had had had had had had had had had the better effect on the teacher", he stuttered...

Haha! You're the first to bite. It's: Alan, while John had had "had", had had "had had". "Had had" had had the better effect on the teacher.

Alan and John are both writing essays at school. Both John and Alan are describing a divorce. John wrote "the man had a wife but she left him" in his essay, Alan wrote 'the man had had a wife but she left him'. The teacher prefers Alan's version because it is grammatically more correcterer.

Edit - there's actually a wiki page for this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_while_John_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_a_better_effect_on_the_teacher

[AlfBaz]

arghh it's doing my head in 

[airiclenz]

Maybe this is OT (ON topic) but in my opinion analog will never die because as long as we have ears and will generate music with electronics, I guess analog is pretty safe.
Also is digital just a "high-contrast" version of analog ( ... I know).

Just my 2 cents.
A.

[SLJ]

Sine wave or square wave? That is the question...

[c4757p]

Sine wave or square wave? That is the question...

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The microvolts and megohms of analog design,
Or to just whack in a bigass FPGA,
And by abstraction avoid them? To digitize;
No more; and by a microcontroller to say we end
The measurement and the thousand electric shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To digitize;
To develop: perchance to code: ay, there's the rub;
For in that programming what debugging may come
When we have shuffled off this SMPS coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would build the power supplies,
The transmission lines, the test gear,

... oh, I give up, it's dinner time.

[duskglow]

Oh ohmeo, ohmeo, wherefore art rhou, ohmeo... deny thy current and refuse thy gain...

[lewis]

Sine wave or square wave? That is the question...

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The microvolts and megohms of analog design,
Or to just whack in a bigass FPGA,
And by abstraction avoid them? To digitize;
No more; and by a microcontroller to say we end
The measurement and the thousand electric shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To digitize;
To develop: perchance to code: ay, there's the rub;
For in that programming what debugging may come
When we have shuffled off this SMPS coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would build the power supplies,
The transmission lines, the test gear,

... oh, I give up, it's dinner time.

Brilliant!

[Strada916]

Well if a sine wave is analogue and the square wave is digital. Then Digital can not exist without analogue as a square wave is multiple harmonics of a sine wave. 

[AlfBaz]

Being a far more common man, limericks seem the order of the day

There once was an amp pushed by voltage
Whos value determined by ohmage
Forums abound with dicks with no sound
Knowledge to calculate wattage

[onlooker]

Well if a sine wave is analogue and the square wave is digital. Then Digital can not exist without analogue as a square wave is multiple harmonics of a sine wave.

But, this is only one of the man-made choices for understanding the nature. The alternative is "equally" true. A sine wave can be decomposed as superposition of a series of square waves. Actually it is more intuitive. In essence, that is what a DAC tries to do anyway. If you want to think about it, this is the delta function/Greens function approach.

[AlfBaz]

Well if a sine wave is analogue and the square wave is digital. Then Digital can not exist without analogue as a square wave is multiple harmonics of a sine wave.

But, this is only one of the man-made choices for understanding the nature. The alternative is "equally" true. A sine wave can be decomposed as superposition of a series of square waves. Actually it is more intuitive. In essence, that is what a DAC tries to do anyway.

But a pure sine wave has no harmonics and is the underlying premise for a very large part of fundamental math for understanding electronics in the first place

[c4757p]

Being a far more common man, limericks seem the order of the day

The analog style's a way
To build a circuit today
But some day soon to come
We'll hear from some bum
That digital is here to stay.


(Yeah, it's not perfectly accurate, but it rhymes! Just pretend you heard it in 1965...)

[c4757p]

But, this is only one of the man-made choices for understanding the nature. The alternative is "equally" true. A sine wave can be decomposed as superposition of a series of square waves. Actually it is more intuitive. In essence, that is what a DAC tries to do anyway. If you want to think about it, this is the delta function/Greens function approach.

Sine is more useful. First, an ideal square wave can't even exist in an ideal world (it's non-differentiable), but the purity of a sine wave is limited only by the precision with which it can be generated. Second, try working out RF harmonics and whatnot in the "square frequency domain". It's mathematically valid, but it just doesn't work practically.

[AlfBaz]

an ideal square wave can't even exist in an ideal world

When dealing in digital, we wish analog was dead 

[SLJ]

The analog style's a way
To build a circuit today
But some day soon to come
We'll hear from some bum
That digital is here to stay.

That day was yesterday...

[c4757p]

That day was yesterday...

(Yeah, it's not perfectly accurate, but it rhymes! Just pretend you heard it in 1965...)

I took a bit of artistic license in the name of a couple lazy rhymes.