Granino A. Korn (1922–2013)

My circuit analysis students like to ask me why analog computers aren't a thing, whereas digital computers are. We talk about things like memory capacity, physical size, noise limitations, etc. Usually my students will just say "OK," but this semester the students have been asking a lot of probing questions along the lines of "BUT WHY?" So I have been doing a lot of research into analog computing.

Electronic Analog Computers by Korn & Korn is the book that all of the other books reference. It is not for the faint of heart. I have three degrees in electrical engineering (although I never concentrated or focused much on analog computing) and this book was definitely a challenge for me to get through. Firstly, terminology has changed. Secondly, almost all of the actual electronics have changed. Thirdly, computers were built to solve DIFFICULT problems, not simple ones, so the content in this book is not simple.

One of my goals is to eventually have a solid enough understanding of analog computation to build simple analog computing components to demonstrate to students, or to have students build them as projects in my class. I think I have a long way to go, but I was at least able to take some of the simpler concepts in this book and realize them using modern op-amps. I will definitely revisit this book in the future as my understanding catches up with the content herein.… (meer)