A computer that processes analog data is known as an analog computer. Analog computers store information in physical quantities in a continuous format and use measurements to perform computation.

When your only tool is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. That’s an old saying and perhaps somewhat obvious, but our tools do color our solutions and sometimes in very subtle ways. For ...

A device that processes infinitely varying signals, such as voltage or frequencies. A thermometer is a simple analog computer. As the temperature varies, the mercury moves correspondingly. A slide ...

Analog computers have been used extensively in the past, for things like tide calculations, but in the semiconductor era things have mostly gone digital. Even where you have analog elements, like DRAM ...

In 1961, the best general purpose desktop computer money could buy was the Pace TR-48. At just 400 pounds and $25K, the only downside was that it was a little tough to program. That's because the ...

Editor’s Note: This article came about from another article called “Circuits without wires” in which a comment by Arthur Glazar led to my discovery of this gem of an article, thanks to my colleague ...

A new study shows that metamaterials can be designed to do "photonic calculus" as a light wave goes through them. A light wave, when described in terms of space and time, has a profile that can be ...

From Quanta Magazine (find original story here). For more than 20 years, Ivan Deutsch has struggled to design the guts of a working quantum computer. He has not been alone. The quest to harness the ...

The rapidly-improving speed and versatility of digital computers has mostly driven analogue computers out of use in modern systems, as has the relative difficulty of programming an analogue computer.

At one time a scientist or engineer trying to solve a tough problem with electronic computation had the choice of an analog computer, a digital computer, or both together in a hybrid configuration.