4 ms·

Analog circuits still have finite bandwidth and rise/response times. The engineering trade-offs are more complicated than the gp presents. The big but mixed a

Analog circuits still have finite bandwidth and rise/response times. The engineering trade-offs are more complicated than the gp presents. The big but mixed advantage of an analog control loop or signal processing chain is "no software". There's no real reason to do simulations on an analog computer today, though I think using one for model-in-the-loop would be fun, and somebody is probably doing it somewhere.

dahart 3y ago
Some people are building analog chip startups today because there are reasons to do analog computation. Among the applications are low-precision high-speed parallel math, neural networks, and image and audio processing.
- buescher 3y ago
  Nothing new, really - from 1989: http://www.carvermead.caltech.edu/documents/Neural_Network_Almanac.pdf http://www.carvermead.caltech.edu/documents/Neural_Network_A... Synaptics and Foveon turned out OK.
  - dahart 3y ago
    There are a bunch of companies looking at Photonic (optical analog chips - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photonic_integrated_circuit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photonic_integrated_circuit ) And I can’t even count how many startups are proposing analog chips in the last 2 years. https://mythic.ai/ https://mythic.ai/ https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20230509VL200/ai-analog-ic-canada-eda-ic-design-distribution.html https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20230509VL200/ai-analog-ic-c... https://www.zdnet.com/article/ai-chip-startup-ceremorphic-comes-out-of-stealth-mode/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/ai-chip-startup-ceremorphic-co... https://www.eenewseurope.com/en/blumind-startup-pursues-analog-ai-at-the-edge/ https://www.eenewseurope.com/en/blumind-startup-pursues-anal... https://www.eetimes.com/rain-demonstrates-ai-training-on-analog-chip/ https://www.eetimes.com/rain-demonstrates-ai-training-on-ana... https://www.eetimes.com/ai-startup-aspinity-launches-low-power-analog-chip/ https://www.eetimes.com/ai-startup-aspinity-launches-low-pow... https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-future-is-analog-startup-infinityq-pushes-novel-quantum-computer/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-future-is-analog-startup-i...

dahart 3y ago

Some people are building analog chip startups today because there are reasons to do analog computation. Among the applications are low-precision high-speed parallel math, neural networks, and image and audio processing.

buescher 3y ago
Nothing new, really - from 1989: http://www.carvermead.caltech.edu/documents/Neural_Network_Almanac.pdf http://www.carvermead.caltech.edu/documents/Neural_Network_A... Synaptics and Foveon turned out OK.
- dahart 3y ago
  There are a bunch of companies looking at Photonic (optical analog chips - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photonic_integrated_circuit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photonic_integrated_circuit ) And I can’t even count how many startups are proposing analog chips in the last 2 years. https://mythic.ai/ https://mythic.ai/ https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20230509VL200/ai-analog-ic-canada-eda-ic-design-distribution.html https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20230509VL200/ai-analog-ic-c... https://www.zdnet.com/article/ai-chip-startup-ceremorphic-comes-out-of-stealth-mode/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/ai-chip-startup-ceremorphic-co... https://www.eenewseurope.com/en/blumind-startup-pursues-analog-ai-at-the-edge/ https://www.eenewseurope.com/en/blumind-startup-pursues-anal... https://www.eetimes.com/rain-demonstrates-ai-training-on-analog-chip/ https://www.eetimes.com/rain-demonstrates-ai-training-on-ana... https://www.eetimes.com/ai-startup-aspinity-launches-low-power-analog-chip/ https://www.eetimes.com/ai-startup-aspinity-launches-low-pow... https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-future-is-analog-startup-infinityq-pushes-novel-quantum-computer/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-future-is-analog-startup-i...