When I was introduced to the Operational Amplifiers & Linear Integrated Circuits course back at the university, my first question is: “Do we really need to learn this subject?” I mean the time is moving and nowadays more and more digital equipments, NOT the analog one, are being produced. I rarely see any analog radio, tape, TV, etc anymore. Most of them are replaced by their digital brother. Digital offers better performance, smaller size and almost unlimited development.
So, why do we need Op amp and their family? I just couldn’t understand why. I imagined like traveling to the past to the analog age, then to the middle age, to the bronze age, to the stone age, to the dinosaur age, ups that’s too far 
. Anyhow, you know what I mean. Does it even worth to learn at all?
Then my lecturer explained that inside every digital equipment lays analog process. In every single digital product, analog input or output is necessary. Why? because our real world is an analog world. It is not digital, not merely 0 and 1. Yes, we have day and night, symbol of 0 and 1, but full day doesn’t emerge directly from full night. From midnight, there is dawn, morning, a brighter morning, a brighter & brighter morning, almost full noon, and finally full noon. Those are analog, not digital. It’s not 0 –> 1, rather it is 0 , 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 , 1. This is our real world, the analog world. We cannot deny it.
Digital is merely the way to process the information. Digital offers faster & more accurate data processing compare to the analog one. However, the input & output are still analog. Here’s where operational amplifiers, or op amps for short, needed. Op amp and other linear circuit is needed to conditioned the analog signal so it will be easier to be process digitally. Coughlin & Driscoll explained beautifully about this on their book, Operational Amplifiers & Linear Integrated Ciruits.
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Yup, we are living in analog real world, but for ur example…
midnight, dawn, morning, a brighter morning, a brighter & brighter morning, almost full noon, and finally full noon….still can be represented with 3 digits…000,001,010,011,100 so on…:-)
u cud have given different example…