Increasing Digital Computer Efficiency with the Aid of Error-Correcting Analog Subroutines

A network of passive electrical resistors is connected in a closed loop with a digital computer. This network functions as a parallel-operating subroutine to greatly accelerate the digital computer solution of certain classes of numerical problems. Computer systems employing the analog subroutine concept are "digital-computer-oriented" hybrid computers. Problems are programmed for conventional digital computation, and the digital computer flow chart is analyzed to determine if some particularly time-consuming blocks could be better handled by analog rather than digital techniques. A simple special-purpose analog unit is then constructed for this computational task.