ADVANTAGES OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES OVER ANALOG TECHNOLOGIES

Digital technology stores information in discrete pieces of information. Analog technology attempts to store exact information which may be accurate to start with, but can gradually deteriorate over time. Here is an example: Situation: The location of a building needs to be represented in some way, so that a stranger can get a picture of it. Digital solution: The building is 16km or 10 miles to the North-East of Airport, in the "xyz" highway. Analog solution: Draw a rough map of locality and put a dot or a "+" on the location of building. Analysis: Analog solution is "accurate" to start with, as it gives the exact location. Digital technology gives "precise" location, but the actual location could be 15.76km from the airport, or maybe 16.28km. Here, analog technology can put the location anywhere, but digital technology can only "represent" discrete kilometer units, or mile units (in this example). But someone copying the analog map for a different purpose might offset the location slightly to the left or right, making it inaccurate. On the other hand, digital technology still gives the same precise information, irrespective of number of times it is copied over to other sources. This is only an example, but brings out the essential difference between digital and analog. A more real world example: Audio tapes are analog, and attempts to precisely store the sound as it was produced. While copying multiple times over, it would deteriorate. But digital technology approximates the sound to whatever it can represent (in the same way 9.86 miles becomes 10 miles). The information will be preserved for eternity, irrespective of number of times it is copied over or replicated. Hope it presents the picture that I wanted to convey!

Power consume by the digital system is significantly lower than analog system. Digital system can detect transmission error more accurately digital system has fast processing speeds compared to analog system.