The digital revolution

This chapter has touched upon digital basics, but cannot possibly go into depth. The scope of digital electronics is vast, and it grows and changes daily. If you are studying to be an electrical engineer, you will take several courses in the digital electronics.

Specialties include data communications, video communications, satellite communications, space communications, medical devices, modems, navigation, calculators, computers, control systems, video games, and so on almost ad infinitum. Engineers devote careers to fields as specific as digital signal processing, digital CD recording, or digital robotics-control devices.

During the 1980s, digital technology replaced analog circuits in almost everything from wristwatches to radios. Along with the proliferation, costs have plummeted while sophistication has grown. These trends will also continue in the twenty-first century.