Analog tests: the microprocessor scores

The complexity and cost of making analog measurements can be reduced by the use of a microprocessor. In an analog instrument, the microprocessor not only can absorb many digital control functions, but it can also reduce analog circuitry drastically - if new analog techniques that take advantage of the microprocessor's power are utilized. Reducing the analog portion of the instrument is important, even at the expense of adding more digital circuitry, because precision analog components are expensive and adjusting, testing, and troubleshooting analog circuits is costly. Often, digital circuits can replace analog circuits because various functions can be executed in either mode. By using a microprocessor, many of these functions can be programmed in software rather than executed in hardware, either analog or digital.