ADC technology for stiil/video

I found this link looking through a video forum http://www.planetanalog.com/story/OEG20030527S0023.

Basically the claim is that noise can be significantly reduced using intelligent hardware at the analog-to-digital conversion stage. Since dynamic range is a ratio of maximum signal and noise, this clearly targets improving dynamic range.

This is why SNR specs in CCD sensors don't tell you how many bits of resolution the camera ultimately produces.