Departments March 3, 1997

ednmag.comment

The land between one and zero

Bill Travis, Senior Technical Editor

Is analog coverage taking a back seat to "glamorous" digital topics?

We at EDN strive to present a well-balanced mixture of topics. Most notably, we try to print useful de-sign information for both the analog- and digital-designer communities. Given the pizzazz and glamour of modern computer systems, "convergence," and "multimedia," it would be easy to downplay analog-design issues and publish only digitally oriented articles. However, we realize that the world is still analog in nature, and even the most sophisticated video, communications, and control systems must work with linear signals to produce their miracles. What's more, at the blindingly high speeds of today's digital systems, data transmission assumes an analog nature, involving transmission-line theory, crosstalk considerations, and other linear-circuit aspects.

In an editorial in EDN (May 16, 1985), I made essentially the same points and polled readers about their preferences in article topics:

I would like EDN to publish:

• More digital, less analog
• More analog, less digital
• An unchanged digital/analog ratio

The results of this poll were striking. As Gary Legg reported in his November 28, 1985, editorial, 66% of those polled preferred more analog, only 5% preferred more digital, and 29% wanted no change. The poll was unscientific, of course; maybe analog-oriented people are more apt to respond to poll questions, or perhaps digital designers are too busy manipulating ones and zeros. It's my belief, however, that a real need exists for good coverage of analog topics, and that need is growing, not diminishing.

Twelve years have elapsed; I think it's time for another poll. This time, though, perhaps the questions should be a little different. Emerging ICs--A/D and D/A converters, DSP chips, em- bedded mCs, for example--are increasingly incorporating both analog and digital functions in their architectures. Hence, the added poll choice:

I would like EDN to publish:

• More purely digital, less purely analog
• More purely analog, less purely digital
• More mixed analog/digital
• An unchanged digital/analog ratio

Let me know what you think.

Send me your comments via fax at (617) 558-4470 or over the Internet at b.travis@cahners.com.

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