article · English
The Power of Analogs
A 37-slide presentation by Bernd Ulmann (December 2010) tracing the history of analog computing from the Antikythera mechanism (~150 BC) through Lord Kelvin, Philbrick's Polyphemus, Hoelzer's Mischgeraet, and the NASA zenith era of the 1960s–70s, then examining the technology's decline and potential future revival. Covers the fundamental approach of indirect analogies — translating differential equations into electronic circuits — and argues that FPGA- or massively-parallel-chip-based digital implementations of analog computing elements could offer superior performance for dynamic-systems simulation. Illustrated with the Lorenz attractor as a worked example.
analog computation historyanalog vs digitaldifferential equationssimulation