An example: * the abacus is a hand-operated digital computer * the slide rule is a hand-operated analog computer |
Used in distinction to digital computers, in which physical or mechanical phenomena are used to construct a [finite-state machine]? which is then used to model the problem being solved.
Unlike digital computers, an analog computer does not have generalized computing power (see Church-Turing thesis) and is only useful for the problem it is configured to solve.
An example:
Examples of analog computers: