Identify the statement that is NOT an advantage of digital technology and digital signal processing in electronic systems.

Difficulty: Easy

Correct Answer: The values may vary over a continuous range.

Explanation:


Introduction / Context:
Digital electronics dominate modern systems because of robustness, programmability, and ease of storage and replication. Knowing why digital approaches are preferred helps engineers choose between analog and digital implementations for sensors, control, audio, and communications.


Given Data / Assumptions:

  • Digital signals take on discrete levels (typically two: LOW/HIGH).
  • A comparison is being made to continuous-valued analog signals.
  • We seek the statement that does not describe a digital advantage.


Concept / Approach:
Digital systems quantize information, which enables error detection/correction, noise immunity via thresholds, algorithmic programmability, and compact, reliable storage. By contrast, continuous-range variability is a property of analog systems and is not an inherent digital advantage.


Step-by-Step Reasoning:
Noise immunity: thresholding and regeneration make digital less susceptible to small disturbances.Programmability: software and firmware alter behavior without hardware redesign.Information storage: bits are easy to store, copy, and transmit with integrity checks.Continuous variation: this is characteristic of analog signals, not digital.


Verification / Alternative check:
Consider an A/D converter: it maps continuous analog values into discrete digital codes, illustrating that digital does not naturally vary continuously—it samples and quantizes instead.


Why Other Options Are Wrong:

  • Less affected by noise: genuine digital advantage due to logic thresholds and regeneration.
  • Operation can be programmed: a hallmark advantage enabling rapid feature changes.
  • Information storage is easy: bits in memory or on media are compact and durable with error correction.


Common Pitfalls:

  • Assuming digital is always superior; some high-fidelity or ultra-low-latency tasks still favor analog stages.
  • Ignoring quantization and sampling errors introduced by digital conversion.


Final Answer:
The values may vary over a continuous range.

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