What are the advantages of digital techniques over analog?

Answer 1

1) The devices used in digital circuits generally operate in one of the two unites, known as ON and OFF resulting in a very simple operation.

2) There are only a few basic operations in digital circuits which are very easy to understand.

3) Digital techniques require Boolean algebra which is very simple and can easily be learnt.

4) Digital circuits require basic concepts of electric network analysis which can easily be learnt. The principal electrical char¬acteristics required are switching speed and loading considerations. On the other hand, analog circuits and systems involve frequency and time domain concepts, complicated circuit analysis techniques, etc. which make the un¬derstanding of these circuits much more difficult than the digital circuits.

5) A large number of IC's are available for performing various operations. These are highly reliable, accurate, and small in size and the speed of operation is very high. A numbers of programmable IC's are also available.

6) Various IC's are available in a logic family with similar electrical character¬istics which make the design and development of digital systems very simple and also reduce interfacing problems. Also, a number of logic families based on different technologies are available which help in optimizing the system design from the point of view of power requirement and speed of operation.

Answer 2

Digital technology stores information in discrete pieces of information. Analog technology attempts to store exact information which may be accurate to start with, but can gradually deteriorate over time.

Here is an example:

Situation: The location of a building needs to be represented in some way, so that a stranger can get a picture of it.

Digital solution: The building is 16km or 10 miles to the North-East of Airport, in the "xyz" highway.

Analog solution: Draw a rough map of locality and put a dot or a "+" on the location of building.

Analysis: Analog solution is "accurate" to start with, as it gives the exact location. Digital technology gives "precise" location, but the actual location could be 15.76km from the airport, or maybe 16.28km. Here, analog technology can put the location anywhere, but digital technology can only "represent" discrete kilometer units, or mile units (in this example).

But someone copying the analog map for a different purpose might offset the location slightly to the left or right, making it inaccurate. On the other hand, digital technology still gives the same precise information, irrespective of number of times it is copied over to other sources.

This is only an example, but brings out the essential difference between digital and analog.

A more real world example: Audio tapes are analog, and attempts to precisely store the sound as it was produced. While copying multiple times over, it would deteriorate. But digital technology approximates the sound to whatever it can represent (in the same way 9.86 miles becomes 10 miles). The information will be preserved for eternity, irrespective of number of times it is copied over or replicated.

Hope it presents the picture that I wanted to convey!