Digital data, in information theory and information systems, is the discrete,

discontinuous representation of information or works. Numbers and letters are commonly used

representations.
Digital data can be contrasted with analog signals which behave in a continuous manner, and
with continuous functions such as sounds, images, and other measurements.
The word digital comes from the same source as the words digit and digitus (the Latin word
for finger), as fingers are often used for discrete counting. Mathematician George Stibitz of Bell
Telephone Laboratories used the word digital in reference to the fast electric pulses emitted by a
device designed to aim and fire anti-aircraft guns in 1942. [1] The term is most commonly used
in computing and electronics, especially where real-world information is converted
to binary numeric form as in digital audio and digital photography.

Contents

 1Symbol to digital conversion

 2States
 3Properties of digital information
 4Historical digital systems
 5See also
 6References
 7Further reading

Symbol to digital conversion[edit]

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Since symbols (for example, alphanumeric characters) are not continuous, representing symbols

digitally is rather simpler than conversion of continuous or analog information to digital. Instead
of sampling and quantization as in analog-to-digital conversion, such techniques
as polling and encoding are used.
A symbol input device usually consists of a group of switches that are polled at regular intervals
to see which switches are switched. Data will be lost if, within a single polling interval, two
switches are pressed, or a switch is pressed, released, and pressed again. This polling can be
done by a specialized processor in the device to prevent burdening the main CPU. When a new
symbol has been entered, the device typically sends an interrupt, in a specialized format, so that
the CPU can read it.
For devices with only a few switches (such as the buttons on a joystick), the status of each can
be encoded as bits (usually 0 for released and 1 for pressed) in a single word. This is useful
when combinations of key presses are meaningful, and is sometimes used for passing the status
of modifier keys on a keyboard (such as shift and control). But it does not scale to support more
keys than the number of bits in a single byte or word.
Devices with many switches (such as a computer keyboard) usually arrange these switches in a
scan matrix, with the individual switches on the intersections of x and y lines. When a switch is
pressed, it connects the corresponding x and y lines together. Polling (often called scanning in
this case) is done by activating each x line in sequence and detecting which y lines then have
a signal, thus which keys are pressed. When the keyboard processor detects that a key has
changed state, it sends a signal to the CPU indicating the scan code of the key and its new state.
The symbol is then encoded, or converted into a number, based on the status of modifier keys
and the desired character encoding.
A custom encoding can be used for a specific application with no loss of data. However, using a
standard encoding such as ASCII is problematic if a symbol such as 'ß' needs to be converted
but is not in the standard.
It is estimated that in the year 1986 less than 1% of the world's technological capacity to store
information was digital and in 2007 it was already 94%. [2] The year 2002 is assumed to be the
year when humankind was able to store more information in digital than in analog format (the
"beginning of the digital age").[3][4]

States[edit]
Digital data come in these three states: data at rest, data in transit and data in use.
The confidentiality, integrity and availability have to be managed during the entire lifecycle from
'birth' to the destruction of the data.

Properties of digital information[edit]

All digital information possesses common properties that distinguish it from analog data with
respect to communications:

 Synchronization: Since digital information is conveyed by the sequence in which

symbols are ordered, all digital schemes have some method for determining the beginning of
a sequence. In written or spoken human languages, synchronization is typically provided
by pauses (spaces), capitalization, and punctuation. Machine communications typically use
special synchronization sequences.
 Language: All digital communications require a formal language, which in this context
consists of all the information that the sender and receiver of the digital communication must
both possess, in advance, in order for the communication to be successful. Languages are
generally arbitrary and specify the meaning to be assigned to particular symbol sequences,
the allowed range of values, methods to be used for synchronization, etc.
 Errors: Disturbances (noise) in analog communications invariably introduce some,
generally small deviation or error between the intended and actual communication.
Disturbances in digital communication do not result in errors unless the disturbance is so
large as to result in a symbol being misinterpreted as another symbol or disturb the
sequence of symbols. It is therefore generally possible to have an entirely error-free digital
communication. Further, techniques such as check codes may be used to detect errors and
guarantee error-free communications through redundancy or re-transmission. Errors in digital
communications can take the form of substitution errors in which a symbol is replaced by
another symbol, or insertion/deletion errors in which an extra incorrect symbol is inserted into
or deleted from a digital message. Uncorrected errors in digital communications have an
unpredictable and generally large impact on the information content of the communication.
 Copying: Because of the inevitable presence of noise, making many successive copies
of an analog communication is infeasible because each generation increases the noise.
Because digital communications are generally error-free, copies of copies can be made
indefinitely.
 Granularity: The digital representation of a continuously variable analog value typically
involves a selection of the number of symbols to be assigned to that value. The number of
symbols determines the precision or resolution of the resulting datum. The difference
between the actual analog value and the digital representation is known as quantization
error. For example, if the actual temperature is 23.234456544453 degrees, but if only two
digits (23) are assigned to this parameter in a particular digital representation, the quantizing
error is: 0.234456544453. This property of digital communication is known as granularity.
 Compressible: According to Miller, "Uncompressed digital data is very large, and in its
raw form, it would actually produce a larger signal (therefore be more difficult to transfer)
 than analog data. However, digital data can be compressed. Compression reduces the
amount of bandwidth space needed to send information. Data can be compressed, sent and
then decompressed at the site of consumption. This makes it possible to send much more
information and result in, for example, digital television signals offering more room on the
airwave spectrum for more television channels." [4]

Historical digital systems[edit]

Even though digital signals are generally associated with the binary electronic digital systems
used in modern electronics and computing, digital systems are actually ancient, and need not be
binary or electronic.

 DNA genetic code is a naturally occurring form of digital data storage.

 Written text (due to the limited character set and the use of discrete symbols – the
alphabet in most cases)
 The abacus was created sometime between 1000 BC and 500 BC, it later became a form
of calculation frequency. Nowadays it can be used as a very advanced, yet basic digital
calculator that uses beads on rows to represent numbers. Beads only have meaning in
discrete up and down states, not in analog in-between states.
 A beacon is perhaps the simplest non-electronic digital signal, with just two states (on
and off). In particular, smoke signals are one of the oldest examples of a digital signal, where
an analog "carrier" (smoke) is modulated with a blanket to generate a digital signal (puffs)
that conveys information.
 Morse code uses six digital states—dot, dash, intra-character gap (between each dot or
dash), short gap (between each letter), medium gap (between words), and long gap
(between sentences)—to send messages via a variety of potential carriers such as electricity
or light, for example using an electrical telegraph or a flashing light.
 The Braille system was the first binary format for character encoding, using a six-bit code
rendered as dot patterns.
 Flag semaphore uses rods or flags held in particular positions to send messages to the
receiver watching them some distance away.
 International maritime signal flags have distinctive markings that represent letters of the
alphabet to allow ships to send messages to each other.
 More recently invented, a modem modulates an analog "carrier" signal (such as sound)
to encode binary electrical digital information, as a series of binary digital sound pulses. A
slightly earlier, surprisingly reliable version of the same concept was to bundle a sequence of
audio digital "signal" and "no signal" information (i.e. "sound" and "silence") on magnetic
cassette tape for use with early home computers.

See also[edit]
 Analog-to-digital converter
 Barker code
 Binary number
 Comparison of analog and digital recording
 Data (computing)
 Data remanence
 Digital architecture
 Digital art
 Digital control
 Digital divide
 Digital electronics
 Digital infinity
 Digital native
 Digital physics
 Digital recording
 Digital Revolution
 Digital video
 Digital-to-analog converter
 Internet forum

References[edit]
1. ^ Ceruzzi, Paul E (June 29, 2012).  Computing: A Concise History.  MIT Press.  ISBN  978-
0-262-51767-6.
2. ^ "The World’s Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate, and Compute
Information", especially Supporting online material, Martin Hilbert and Priscila López
(2011), Science, 332(6025), 60–65; free access to the article through here:
martinhilbert.net/WorldInfoCapacity.html
3. ^ "video animation on The World’s Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate, and
Compute Information from 1986 to 2010
4. ^ Jump up to:a b Miller, Vincent (2011).  Understanding digital culture. London: Sage
Publications. sec. "Convergence and the contemporary media experience".  ISBN  978-1-84787-
497-9.