Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/10/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Godfrey DiGiorgi wrote: > > >> Going to our friend the dictionary: ><Snip> I found these from "OneLook" Digital: Denoting the use of binary notation; i.e, the representation of data by bits (1 or 0). digital: Using discrete expressions to represent variables. Discrete: Composed of distinct or discontinuous elements. Digital: Pertaining to discrete or distinct finite values. As opposed to analog or continuous quantities. Digital: A circuit, processor, or other device using a binary numeric (1 or 0) system to represent and process information. A digital tape recorder converts the incoming analog audio signal into a stream of ones and zeros that are stored onto the tape. Upon playback, the series of numbers are converted back to a analog signal. Digital: describes electronic technology that generates, stores, and processes data in terms of two states: positive and non-positive. Positive is expressed or represented by the number 1 and non-positive by the number 0. Thus, data transmitted or stored with digital technology is expressed as a string of 0's and 1's. Each of these state digits is referred to as a bit (and a string of bits that a computer can address individually as a group is a byte). Prior to digital technology, electronic transmission was limited to analog technology, which conveys data as electronic signals of varying frequency or amplitude that are added to carrier waves of a given frequency. Broadcast and phone transmission has conventionally used analog technology. Digital technology is primarily used with new physical communications media, such as satellite and fiber optic transmission. Digital: <data> A description of data which is stored or transmitted as a sequence of discrete symbols from a finite set, most commonly this means binary data represented using electronic or electromagnetic signals. Digital: A form of representation in which distinct objects, or digits, are used to stand for something in the real world, so that counting and other operations can be performed precisely. Data represented digitally can be manipulated to produce a calculation, a sort, or some other computation. In digital electronic computers, two electrical states correspond to the 1’s and the 0’s of binary numbers, which are manipulated by computer programs. Compiled by Mark Rabiner