A digital circuit has two states, 0 and 1, with which it operates. On the other hand, an analog circuit has infinite number of states.
Analog circuits operate on continuous valued signals (also known as analog signals). Using automation techniques to design analog circuits is inefficient, therefore each component must be placed by hand. Furthermore there is no need for converting input to output because input signals are analog, so the circuit straight away undergoes logical operations and produces an analog output. Overall there is no loss of information. It is very difficult to make analog devices by hand, thus takes a long time for it to be marketed.
In digital circuits, the input signals are converted from analog to digital form before it is processed. The output is again converted back from digital to analog signals, so that the output gives results that can be understood by humans. This circuit is only capable of processing digital signals. In addition digital circuits are easy to design since automation technique can be applied at various levels of circuit design. This involves minimum human interaction. Due to the complicated conversion process at the input side(analog to digital) and at the output side (digital to analog), some amount of information is lost during the process. The availability to design digital circuits is significantly large compared to that of analog circuit designers.
Analog circuits operate on continuous valued signals (also known as analog signals). Using automation techniques to design analog circuits is inefficient, therefore each component must be placed by hand. Furthermore there is no need for converting input to output because input signals are analog, so the circuit straight away undergoes logical operations and produces an analog output. Overall there is no loss of information. It is very difficult to make analog devices by hand, thus takes a long time for it to be marketed.
In digital circuits, the input signals are converted from analog to digital form before it is processed. The output is again converted back from digital to analog signals, so that the output gives results that can be understood by humans. This circuit is only capable of processing digital signals. In addition digital circuits are easy to design since automation technique can be applied at various levels of circuit design. This involves minimum human interaction. Due to the complicated conversion process at the input side(analog to digital) and at the output side (digital to analog), some amount of information is lost during the process. The availability to design digital circuits is significantly large compared to that of analog circuit designers.
ADC - Analog to digital converter
DAC - Digital to analog converter
DAC - Digital to analog converter
How information can be lost when converting analog to digital