measurement such as an electronic device that converts an input analog voltage or current to a digital number representing the magnitude of the voltage or current. Typically the digital output is a two's complement binary number that is proportional to the input, but there are other possibilities. There are several ADC architectures. Due to the complexity and the need for precisely matched components, all but the most specialized ADCs are implemented as integrated circuits (ICs). A digital-to-analog converter (DAC) performs the reverse function; it converts a digital signal into an analog signal. Contents 1 Explanation 1.1 Resolution 1.1.1 Quantization error 1.1.2 Dither 1.2 Accuracy 1.2.1 Nonlinearity 1.3 Jitter 1.4 Sampling rate 1.4.1 Aliasing 1.4.2 Oversampling 1.5 Relative speed and precision 1.6 Sliding scale principle 2 Types 2.1 Direct-conversion 2.2 Successive approximation 2.3 Ramp-compare 2.4 Wilkinson 2.5 Integrating 2.6 Delta-encoded 2.7 Pipelined 2.8 Sigma-delta 2.9 Time-interleaved 2.10 Intermediate FM stage 2.11 Other types 3 Commercial 4 Applications 4.1 Music recording 4.2 Digital signal processing 4.3 Scientific instruments 4.4 Rotary encoder 5 Electrical symbol 6 Testing 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External links