²There is no theoretical limit to the number of points in a digital computer’s characterizer function given sufficient processing power and memory. There is, however, a limit to the patience of the human programmer who must encode all the necessary x,y data points defining this function. Most of the piecewise characterizing functions I have seen available in digital instrumentation systems provide 10 to 20 (x,y) coordinate points to define the function. Fewer than 10 coordinate points risks excessive interpolation errors, and more than 20 would just be tedious to configure.