From: Farley Flud <fsquared@fsquared.linux>
Subject: Re: Rewriting SSA. Is This A Chance For GNU/Linux?
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.linux.misc
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Date: Tue, 08 Apr 2025 11:59:33 +0000
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On Mon, 07 Apr 2025 17:59:45 -0400, c186282 wrote:

> 
>    Indeed ! However ... probably COULD be done, it's
>    a bunch of shifting values - input to some accts,
>    calx ops, shift to other accts ....... lots and
>    lots of rheostats ........
> 

How is conditional branching (e.g. an if-then-else statement)
to be implemented with analog circuits?  It cannot be
done.

Analog computers are good for modelling systems that are
described by differential equations.  Adders, differentiators,
and integrators can all be easily implemented with electronic
circuits.  But beyond differential equation sytems analog
computers are useless.

The Norden bomb site of WWII wan an electro-mechanical
computer.  It's job was to calculate the trajectory of
a bomb released by an aircraft and the trajectory is described
by a differential equation. 

One of my professors told a story about a common "analog"
practice among engineers of the past.  To calculate an integral,
which can be described as the area under a curve, they would plot
the curve on well made paper and then cut out (with scissors)
the plotted area and weigh it (on a lab balance).  The ratio
of the cut-out area with a unit area of paper would be the
value of the integral.  (Multi-dimensional integrals would
require carving blocks of balsa wood or a similar material.)

Of course it worked but today integration is easy to perform
to unlimited accuracy using digital means.

 
-- 
Hail Linux!  Hail FOSS!  Hail Stallman!