ADC (analog-to-digital converter)
Beginner
A circuit that measures an electrical signal and turns it into a number.
Novice
Converts a voltage or current into a digital number with a fixed number of bits. An 8-bit ADC distinguishes 256 levels. More bits mean finer steps but more energy, area and time.
Expert
In analog CIM, the column ADC usually dominates power and area. Energy per conversion grows roughly linearly with bits at low resolution and about 4× per bit once thermal noise sets the limit; ENOB, not nominal bits, measures what you actually get.
Explained in Sparsity, in-memory and analog compute (Architectures).
See also: DAC (digital-to-analog converter), ENOB (effective number of bits).