Data Conversion Misc

Data conversion is a generic term used for the process of converting data from one form to another. Analog-to-digital conversion and digital-to-analog conversion are two very common types of data conversion. However, data conversion can also be purely digital as well. The need for data conversion arises from the fact that different systems use different schemes for representing and ordering data.
Analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversions are specials types of data conversion. Analog signals are continuous time signals with a continuous range of values, but digital signals are discrete time and have only an integer number of possible values. This requires that great care be taken to ensure the output of an ADC or DAC is an accurate representation of the input. Data conversion problems such as aliasing, excessive quantization noise, and distortion can result from improper ADC or DAC design and implementation.
There are many forms of digital-to-digital data conversion. A basic example is converting big-endian digital words into little-endian or vice versa. The translation from regular binary encoding to gray encoding is another simple example. The conversion of digital data can also be much more complex. Conversion of a sequence of digital numbers into its frequency domain representation via the fast-Fourier transform (FFT) is a very common operation within digital systems. Read more Read less