Analog Computers Vs.

Digital Computers
By Richard Thomas, eHow Contributor

Analog computing is the oldest form of computing, with primitive analog computers discovered
that date as far back as 100 BC. Modern digital computing is widely thought to have superseded
analog, and for the most part it has, but not out of sheer superiority. Electric analog computing is
actually better for certain very particular applications, and continues to be researched today.

What is Analog?
1. Analog computers use continuous physical properties for calculations. An analog
magnetic tape, for example, manipulates magnetism to record sound. The magnetic
imprint on the tape is a direct analog of the sound, and is read back by a reader. An
analog computer uses physical properties in the same way. Analog computers have been
built using mechanical, hydraulic, optical and electric principles.

Electric Analog Computers

2.

The Polish electric analog computer ATAK-1.

An electric analog computer is different from a digital computer in what it uses the
electricity for. Digital computers use electricity to create binary code, where an electric
analog computer uses the properties of electricity to replace the mechanical features of
previous analog computer designs. For example, voltage is similar to water pressure and
amps to total water flow, so these properties can be used to convert a hydraulic design
into an electronic one.
An easy to understand example is the difference between how data is encoded on a CD
and a vinyl record. The CD is digital, encoded with a pattern that simulates binary code,
which is read by a laser and converted into useful data. The vinyl record is a direct analog
of the data itself.

Analog Computers Strengths

3. Because analog computers do not have to encode and decode from binary, and instead
use the physical properties of electricity directly, the functions they can perform are done
 at a substantial fraction of the speed of light, and are therefore dramatically faster than
what even the most powerful supercomputer is capable of. Calculations that are very
difficult for a digital computer can be done with great speed by an electric analog
computer.

Analog Computers Weaknesses

4. The problems with analog computers stem from the same electrical phenomenon upon
which the computer is based. Just as a digital computer is slower because it has to work
in and out of binary code to accomplish anything, analog computers are subject to
electrical problems and limitations such as the noise floor of its signals, the finite nature
of an electron's charge, microelectronic parasitic effects, temperature issues and non-
linearities. It is simplest to look at electric analog computing as an improvement on past
analog forms, but still suffering from problems analogous to hydraulic and mechanical
computing.

Analog Computers Today

5. While the digital model overwhelmingly dominates computing today, analogs remain a
research curiosity precisely because, in theory, they are much faster at particular tasks.
Both Indiana University and Harvard University continue to research analog computing
applications.

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Digital vs Analogue Computers

Analogue (or analog) computers were well known in the 1940s although they are now virtually
extinct. In such machines, numbers to be used in some calculation were represented by physical
quantities - such as electrical voltages. The Penguin Dictionary of Computers, in 1970, contained
the following discussion:

Essentially an analog computer must be able to accept inputs which vary with respect to time,
and directly apply these inputs to various devices within the computer which performs the
computing operations of additions, subtraction, multiplication, division, integration and function
generation. ... The computing units of analog computers are able to respond immediately to the
changes which they detect in the input variables, and the connexion of these various units in a
particular fashion can cause an analog computer to perform very complex arithmetic functions
at high speed while the actual process under study is in operation. ...

Analog computers do not have the ability of digital computers to store data in large quantities,
nor do they have the comprehensive logical facilities afforded by programming digital machines.
And although the arithmetic functions performed by the computing units are more complex in
analog machines than in the digital systems, the cost of the hardware required to provide a high
degree of accuracy in an analog machine is often prohibitive.

Some analog machines are designed for specific applications, but most electrical and electronic
analog computers provide a number of different computing devices which can be connected
together via a plugboard to provide different methods of operation for specified problems.