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Analog Computer

Analog computers vary in complexity, from simple devices like slide rules to complex systems used in naval gunfire control. They were faster than digital computers in many scientific and industrial applications until they began to decline in use during the 1950s and 1960s, though they remained relevant in specific fields like flight simulation. Mechanical watches serve as a relatable example of analog computing, with more advanced applications persisting into the 1980s due to limitations of digital technology.

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Gerrald Yolamu
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2 views1 page

Analog Computer

Analog computers vary in complexity, from simple devices like slide rules to complex systems used in naval gunfire control. They were faster than digital computers in many scientific and industrial applications until they began to decline in use during the 1950s and 1960s, though they remained relevant in specific fields like flight simulation. Mechanical watches serve as a relatable example of analog computing, with more advanced applications persisting into the 1980s due to limitations of digital technology.

Uploaded by

Gerrald Yolamu
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Analog computers

Analog computers can have a very wide range of complexity. Slide rules and nomograms are the
simplest, while naval gunfire control computers and large hybrid digital/analog computers were among
the most complicated. Complex mechanisms for process control and protective relays used analog
computation to perform control and protective functions.

Analog computers were widely used in scientific and industrial applications even after the advent of
digital computers, because at the time they were typically much faster, but they started to become
obsolete as early as the 1950s and 1960s, although they remained in use in some specific applications,
such as aircraft flight simulators, the flight computer in aircraft, and for teaching control systems in
universities. Perhaps the most relatable example of analog computers are mechanical watches where
the continuous and periodic rotation of interlinked gears drives the second, minute and hour needles in
the clock. More complex applications, such as aircraft flight simulators and synthetic-aperture radar,
remained the domain of analog computing (and hybrid computing) well into the 1980s, since digital
computers were insufficient for the task.

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