Audio DesignLine has been running a series of articles on analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and digital-to-analog converters (DACs). Written by two engineers at Analog Devices, the series focuses on their use in digital signal processing (DSP) systems. Good stuff!

• Part 1 introduces the concept of sampling and explains Nyquist’s sampling criteria and how to use undersampling and antialiasing filters,
• Part 2 explains how ADCs and DACs introduce noise through quantization and other “DC” errors as well as explaining the characteristics of an ideal ADC,
• Part 3 examines distortion and noise in practical ADCs,
• Part 4 examines jitter, delay, and other errors in ADCs, and
• Part 5 examines DAC performance, including glitches and rolloff.