Grayman
Soul Shade
First off some information:
http://phys.org/news/2015-05-quantum-emulated-classical.html
Analog is essentially taking a 1 to 5 volts and then converting it to a number representation of that voltage. This requires one transistor that is partially on to create the specified voltage.
So 1vdc is 0% and 5vdc is 100%. Lets say you assign 10,000,000,000 to 5vdc and 0 to 1vdc then at 3vdc or 50% of the range it will show 5,000,000,000.
Mathematically you can reach any value between 0 and 10,000,000,000 with this single transistor and even display fractional numbers like 2.5 by sending out the voltage of 1.000000001vdc.
In comparison, for digital computers to get the number 2,147,483,647 which is 32 bits you would need 32 transistors that are all on and this can only represent the whole numbers and not fractional number like the analog transistor can.
So what is the problem? Why not use analog for everything when you need less transistors to produce the same results plus more?
The voltage can shift around a small amount or read a little off. That (1.000000001) might come out (1.00000002) and then the reading will be 5 instead of 2.5. If this was your calculator on a physics test you would be screwed.
By using the 5vdc to represent smaller number you can reduce the inaccuracy. In some cases all you need is to just get close.
I think future computers will be both analog and digital. The analog can get things close and produce results faster and then fine tune its accuracy with the logic(digital) circuit. All this can be done without needing a getup like a quantum computer needs with its near absolute zero temp and giant size.
In some cases like sound and language recognition. Close is exactly what you need.
PS Read some articles about this but cannot find them. They explained it better. I added my own analog examples though.
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Some scientists who are skeptical that quantum computing is even possible suggest that the newer quantum computers are actually fancy analog computers and don't use real quantum mechanics.
http://phys.org/news/2015-05-quantum-emulated-classical.html
Analog is essentially taking a 1 to 5 volts and then converting it to a number representation of that voltage. This requires one transistor that is partially on to create the specified voltage.
So 1vdc is 0% and 5vdc is 100%. Lets say you assign 10,000,000,000 to 5vdc and 0 to 1vdc then at 3vdc or 50% of the range it will show 5,000,000,000.
Mathematically you can reach any value between 0 and 10,000,000,000 with this single transistor and even display fractional numbers like 2.5 by sending out the voltage of 1.000000001vdc.
In comparison, for digital computers to get the number 2,147,483,647 which is 32 bits you would need 32 transistors that are all on and this can only represent the whole numbers and not fractional number like the analog transistor can.
So what is the problem? Why not use analog for everything when you need less transistors to produce the same results plus more?
The voltage can shift around a small amount or read a little off. That (1.000000001) might come out (1.00000002) and then the reading will be 5 instead of 2.5. If this was your calculator on a physics test you would be screwed.
By using the 5vdc to represent smaller number you can reduce the inaccuracy. In some cases all you need is to just get close.
I think future computers will be both analog and digital. The analog can get things close and produce results faster and then fine tune its accuracy with the logic(digital) circuit. All this can be done without needing a getup like a quantum computer needs with its near absolute zero temp and giant size.
In some cases like sound and language recognition. Close is exactly what you need.
PS Read some articles about this but cannot find them. They explained it better. I added my own analog examples though.
***********
Some scientists who are skeptical that quantum computing is even possible suggest that the newer quantum computers are actually fancy analog computers and don't use real quantum mechanics.
