Talk:Digital-to-analog converter

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Contents 1 Unbalanced article 2 Intial discussion 3 I miss a history section.. 4 The fact that practical DACs output a sequence of piecewise constant values or rectangular pulses

[edit] Unbalanced article

The article is focussed way too much on audio DACs. It should contain more balanced information about other important types of DACs, mostly high speed (100MSPS to 1GSPS) DACs: flash DAC, pipeline DACs, switched capacitor DAC, dual DACs used for I/Q upconversion etc. see Analog Devices AD9777A for example.

And technically, the chip pictured at the beginning of the article is an audio CODEC, not an audio DAC. difference: DAC chip = only contains a DAC; CODEC = contains several DACs, several ADCs, muxers, gain controls, interpolators (to support multiple sampling rates), and so on, providing a complete bidirectional analog <==> digital interface. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.132.120.254 (talk) 17:27, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Intial discussion

Why are switching capacitor style DACs such as those implemented for VGA and TV signal generation left out? This article seems to concentrate entirely on DACs for the purpose of audio signal generation.

DACs are used in analogue signal processing circuits to replace potentiometers

I know what the writer is getting at, but these circuit elements are not really DACs, they are digitally controlled potentiometers ;-) In other words they do not create an analogue signal from a digital one, asa DAC does, but controls a purely analogue signal under digital control. Such devices are interesting and deserve an article, but they do not belong under DAC. Graham 05:50, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

I've now made a start on this article based on the text copied from here. Graham 06:00, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] I miss a history section..

Could someone with knowledge write one? Electron9 01:10, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The fact that practical DACs output a sequence of piecewise constant values or rectangular pulses

Rectangular pulse output was used to avoid the sinc roll-off of zero-order hold circuits. That is, rectangular pulse was used as an approximation of a dirac pulse. See for example this discussion: [1] So the use of the term "rectangular pulse" in the context of Nyquest-rate zero-order hold circuits is confusing: rectangular pulse DAC circuits are not Nyquest-rate zero-order hold circuits.150.101.166.15 (talk) 08:36, 30 November 2007 (UTC)