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Research Report CS-RR-429

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Charles Care, A chronology of analogue computing

It has become commonplace to apply the terms analogue and digital to various technologies. During the twentieth century, this classification was applied to computing technology and created two very separate technical cultures.

From the perspective of twenty-first century technology, analogue computing is often assumed to be a technology with a continuous representation of state. However, analogue computers were originally so-called because they supported the construction of analogies.

This paper reviews the history of analogue computing and presents the history as a three-stranded chronology, separating the ideas of analogue computer as a 'continuous' machine from the perspective of the analogue computer as an 'analogy' or 'modelling' machine. Around 1940, these two conceptual identities became entwined, creating the analogue/digital discourse familiar today.

Citation

An edited form of this report has been published. The published paper may be cited as:

C. Care, 'A chronology of analogue computing', The Rutherford Journal, Volume 2, December 2006. ISSN: 1177-1380.

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http://www.rutherfordjournal.org/article020106.html

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