Analog computing system and method of performing analog computing

Abstract

Performing analog computing on an input bitstream comprising a plurality of input data units. An analog computational operation is performed to output data units. Output data units comprises a sequence of computed values corresponding to a sequence of bits of an input data unit. An output value corresponding to each output data unit is generated by applying bit-encoding functions to generate respective bit-encoding waveforms that decay and then sampling a combination of the bit-encoding waveforms at a sampling time. The sequential positions of the bit-encoding waveforms represent significances of the bits of the corresponding input data unit. Options include exponentially decaying bit-encoding waveforms, a receiver system receiving the output data units and performing the subsequent encoding and sampling, this may comprise a low-pass filter configured to apply the bit-encoding functions and may be a RC circuit, connected to an op amp, a circuit configured to apply the bit-encoding functions, and / or comprise an optical resonator, an optically excitable system, or a photodetector e.g. a photo-diode. The analogue computational operation may be a linear computation and may be performed optically. A transmitter may originate the input signal and an ADC may process the final output. The processing can be a multi-channel operation.

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