APPLICATION STUDIES OF COMBINED ANALOG-DIGITAL COMPUTATION TECHNIQUES
Abstract
The concept of pulsed-analog computation in which high-speed, time- shared analog computing elements operate under the control of a digital computer is described. The design of a demonstration pulsed-analog computer is presented and applicability of combined analog-digital computation techniques to some computational tasks. The computation tasks were those for which it was felt that combined analog-digital techniques would provide some advantages over purely analog or purely digital techniques. The computational tasks were: (1) the solution of partial differ ential equations - here the studies indicated that combined analog-digital techniques can provide enough saving in computation time and computer hardware to make them useful in the control of chemical processes; (2) speech synthesis - these studies indicated that a general-purpose combined analog-digital computer can be a very useful research tool where flexibility in the model of the system under study and the control parameters of that model is desired; and (3) digital computer cathode-ray tube display - here the studies indicated that a fairly simple pulsed-analog computer can remove from the digital computer the time-consuming task of generating displays of the line drawing type and perform other tasks.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 1963
- Accession Number
- AD0404179
Entities
People
- Frank B. Hills
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology