Digital signal processing

A digital signal processor (DSP) is optimized to perform computations on digitized representations of analog signals. Real-world signals such as audio, video, cell phone transmissions, and radar are analog in nature, meaning the information being processed is the response of an electrical sensor to a continuously varying voltage. Before a digital processor can begin to work with an analog signal, the signal voltage must be converted to a digital representation by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The following section describes the operation of ADCs and digital-to-analog converters (DACs).

ADCs and DACs

An ADC measures an analog input voltage and produces a digital output word representing the input voltage. ADCs often use a DAC internally during the conversion process. A DAC performs the reverse operation of an ADC, converting a digital word to an analog voltage.

A variety of circuit architectures are used in DAC applications, generally with...