• Analog-Digital

    Hybrid

    Computing

    We are ushering in a new era of high-performance computing by developing an analog computer on-a-chip.

  • Hybrid

    Computing

    On-a-Chip

    We are combining the richness and efficiency of analog with the precision control of digital

  • Breakthrough

    Computing

    Performance

    We are accelerating technology beyond the limits of Moore's Law

Analog-Digital Hybrid Computing

Mid-20th century industrial design icons Charles and Ray Eames noted that measuring the weight of honey on a gradual scale is analog whereas counting sugar cubes in discrete units is digital. They likened analog to broad jump where manifestations of performance are measured along a continuous range. And they likened digital to high jump where performance is evaluated against a preset threshold. At that time, analog and digital had already brought about two seperate approaches to electronic computing.

Today, analog is a well-understood, yet underutilized computing paradigm next to the ubiquitous digital and the infant quantum paradigms. Digital computing, well suited for algorithmic symbol processing in discrete steps, is less suited to model continuous relationships efficiently. Today's urgent challenges in new energy research, public health, economic modelling and elsewhere, however, require precisely the modelling of continuous relationships. Analog computing is ideally suited to address these challenges with unparalleled speed and efficiency.

Once seen as an alternative to digital, analog can complement digital in analog-digital hybrid computers. This offers a path to accelerate computing beyond the impending end of Moore's Law. To this day, however, the enormous potential of hybrid computing remains largely untapped.

At anabrid, we are designing an analog computer on-a-chip. Its integration into digital computers will yield powerful, general-purpose and special-purpose hybrids of the two computational paradigms. Incorporating thousands of analog computing elements operated at scale under digital control, anabrid's analog computer on-a-chip will complement digital technology – combining the benefits of both to compute more, faster, and cheaper.

View Anabrid mission statement video on Youtube

Application Potential

The analog computer on-a-chip opens the door to another computing paradigm for the 21st century. The principles of its operations and of its implementation in silicon are understood. Its potential to support and enhance digital computation is vast. To illustrate this potential, we divide it into eight segments using three distinctions:

User experience: Users may be aware of using an analog computer on-a-chip (engaged) or they may be unaware of it (hidden).

Scale: A given application may harness a few dozen analog computing elements (small scale) or vastly more analog computing elements can be deployed (large scale).

Purpose: An analog computer on-a-chip may be applied with a fixed configuration (special purpose) or its users may be able to re-configure its programming (general purpose).

 

Target Markets

Research & Development

anabrid's development of the analog computer on-a-chip is underpinned by sustained hardware and software innovation, education, documentation, and community outreach initiatives. Under its brand Analog Paradigm, anabrid is developing a ground-breaking range of analog and hybrid computer systems.

THE ANALOG THING (THAT) is a high-quality, low-cost, open-source, and not-for-profit cutting-edge hybrid-enabled analog computer available to individuals and educational institutions in the near future. It is a strategic resource in anabrid's fostering of young analog computing talent.

The Model-1 analog computer with its accompanying range of expansion modules is available to industry, research institutions, and individual customers.

A range of academic and educational literature, system documentation and application notes, as well as several open-source developer resources and related software documentation, support the anabrid product ecosystem. These resources are open to community engagement and collaborative university research.

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