DAC

Also called: Digital to Analog Converter

A DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) converts an abstract finite-precision number (usually a fixed-point binary number) into a concrete physical quantity (e.g., a voltage or a pressure). In particular, DACs are often used to convert finite-precision time series data to a continually-varying physical signal.

A typical DAC converts the abstract numbers into a concrete sequence of impulses that are then processed by a reconstruction filter using some form of interpolation to fill in data between the impulses. Other DAC methods (e.g., methods based on Delta-sigma modulation) produce a pulse-density modulated signal that can then be filtered in a similar way to produce a smoothly-varying signal.

See also

• List of D/A Converter (DAC) IP Cores

Related Papers

• Sigma-delta techniques extend DAC resolution
• Video current D/A converters: some fundamentals for IP use

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