History of digitization

Digitization is born from the replacement of analog.

What is the difference between a digital signal and an analog signal?

An analog signal is a continuous signal that can take any value.

The digital signal is a discontinuous signal, made of 1 and 0.

Thus, as shown in this diagram by Mathilde Glénat and Delphine Chareyron of the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon:

The principle is as follows: letters, numbers, images or sounds are transformed into electrical impulses, themselves translatable into the form of 0 and 1. This digitization is therefore binary.

Some stages of this digitization:

1966: Arpanet is launched (first packet transfer network by the Department of Defense in the United States)

1,970s: digitization applied to telephony

1,980s: digitization of sounds, music and images

1,980s: diffusion of the personal computer

1983: official birth of the internet

1,990s: digital convergence of computer science, telecommunications, and audiovisual.

around 1995: digital radiotelephone

around 1996: digital networks

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