Brizmaker, Dreamstime.com
Engineers who need to precisely generate an analog output and control auxiliary functions typically employ a precision digital-to-analog converter (DAC) plus a combination of discrete analog components and a microcontroller (MCU). The effort required to choose the right components, write software for the MCU, and meet relevant regulatory requirements can be unnecessarily complicated when all you want to do is implement some simple, basic functions.
An alternative is to use a new type of device called a smart DAC—a factory-programmable precision DAC that has integrated nonvolatile memory (NVM), programmable state-machine logic, pulse-width-modulation (PWM) generators, and custom waveform generators.