Analog transmission is not particularly efficient. When the signal-to-noise ratio of an analog signal deteriorates due to attenuation, amplifying the signal also amplifies noise. Digital signals are ...

Emerging, data-intensive technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning are gaining popularity. Data centers, which act as the essential infrastructure for these technologies, need to ...

As our society’s hunger for data grows—not only more data, but more data delivered faster—older modulation schemes based on NRZ-type encoding grow increasingly inadequate. We need to get data from ...

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in ...