Mixed-signal technology

An increasingly important technology in the integrated circuit (IC) market is the mixed-signal IC. Already accounting for almost nine percent of the total IC market, mixed-signal potential continues to be developed by important semiconductor companies, including National Semiconductor, Texas Instruments and Motorola. Mixed-signal circuits do not simply convert analog signals to digital. Rather, mixed-signal--also known as digitized analog--is the representation of analog signals in digital form. These can be filtered, analyzed and changed with software. This new technology is evidence that mixed-signal is allowing designs that previously were not possible. Digitized analog nullifies the key criticism made against mixed-signal: that it is too difficult to design. Examples of digitized analog implementations in systems include the Patriot missile system, compact disk players and laser printers.