HYBRID COMPUTERS: FEATURES, TYPES, ADVANTAGES, EXAMPLES - TECHNOLOGY - 2024

The hybrid computers are computers that have features of analog and digital machines. The digital device is used to control and solve logical-arithmetic operations, while the analog device is used as a solver for differential equations.

Generally, an approximate solution of complex equations is obtained using iterative numerical methods, which require a large number of iterations, depending on how good the initial "seed" of the final value is and how much precision is desired.

Hitachi 505 analog hybrid computer. Image via philreichert.org

Analog equipment is typically astonishingly fast, because it can solve immensely complicated equations with how fast the signal travels through the circuit, which is a respectable portion of the speed of light.

However, the precision of analog computers is not good, being limited to three or maximum four digits of precision.

On the other hand, digital equipment is manufactured so that the solution of the equations is brought to an almost exact precision, although much slower when compared to analog computers.

Thus, for many real-time operations, these digital calculations are too slow to be useful, but the precision of an analog computer is not sufficient either. Hence the importance of hybrid computers.

characteristics

Combination of analog and digital components

These computers are based on a computer system that matches analog devices with digital ones.

Typically, the analog components of the computer operate complex mathematical calculations. Digital components are responsible for both arithmetic and logical operations, as well as being used to control the system.

In the case of a supercomputer, it corresponds to a combination of machines capable of processing digital and analog signals. A hybrid computer provides a suitable method for performing highly complex simulations.

The best of the analog and digital world

By creating this type of integrated computer, the benefits of both analog and digital computing are readily available.

A hybrid computer is blazingly fast when it comes to solving equations, even if the calculations are immensely complex. This is so thanks to the presence of essential analog components to the design of the equipment.

Therefore, the hybrid computer can solve equations with the same ability as an analog machine. Additionally, digital elements serve to exclude one of the main drawbacks of a totally analog device.

In comparative terms, the range of precision in an analog computer is limited, while the precision with a digital computer is much higher.

By integrating the elements that make it possible for a digital computer to far exceed three or four digits of precision, hybrid computing allows equations to be handled much more quickly than with the digital option alone.

In other words, hybrid computing offers both speed and accuracy, eliminating the need for the user to settle for just a digital or analog computer.

Technical applications

Hybrid equipment is essentially intended for technical applications where not only discrete data is handled, but also continuous. That is, they allow the processing of these two types of data.

Both analog and hybrid computers are purpose-built computers, and their applications are pre-defined at the time of design.

Types

2 in 1 PC

For a laptop, the term "hybrid computer" is used to refer to a 2-in-1 PC. This type of PC is made up of a detachable screen and keyboard, thus combining the functionality of a laptop and a tablet.

These hybrid computers have the power of a computer and additionally, by disconnecting the keyboard, they have the portability of a tablet.

For example, this hybrid computer could be used to perform tasks with it during the day and then by separating the screen to enjoy it in bed browsing on Facebook and Instagram.

Large hybrid electronic computers

They were used extensively from the 1960s to the mid-1980s. They had several hundred operational amplifiers.

They solved enormously complex and extensive sets of mathematical models of differential equations.

For example, six-degree-of-freedom spaceflight, kinetics of exothermic chemical reactions, control systems for food processing plants, and the human immunosuppressive system.

General purpose hybrid systems

They are computers that have the characteristic of being able to use different applications or to be able to solve numerous types of problems.

Many of these types of hybrid computers were at one time special purpose systems, being part-time hybrid computers where the result could be obtained at a certain speed.

Hybrid Dedicated Computers

They include static programs that cannot be adjusted. They are typically embedded in physical systems that are commonly used as subsystem simulators, function controllers, or output analyzers.

For example, the pneumatic computer uses air bellows and nozzles to generate precise multiplication, division, or square root functions of the input signals, encoding the data as air pressures.

Advantages and disadvantages

- Advantage

Speed

These computers have an enormous computing speed thanks to the configuration offered by the analog system. This is quite useful when looking for numerical results for differential equations, as in the case of flight simulation.

For these purposes, analog systems had been used because they were faster than digital computers, providing solutions in less time. However, the accuracy of these results was questionable.

Thus, a hybrid computer provides fast and accurate results, being of immense utility when trying to solve complex equations in real time and it is essential to obtain the results instantly.

Great precision

The results obtained with hybrid equipment turn out to be much more accurate and more profitable than those of previous machines. This is due to the digital component of the hybrid computer.

With the hybrid computer the "seed" values ​​are generated quickly, although without being mathematically precise, since this value is achieved with the front end of analog computing.

This value is sent to the digital front end, which through an iterative process obtains a precise numerical seed. The total time required to calculate this precise value is much less than using an analog or digital only computer.

Online data processing

The value of a hybrid computer is easily seen when there is a need to manage equations in real time.

Just as a strictly analog device would provide fast returns that are not entirely accurate, and a digital device would provide more accurate responses that would take longer to calculate, the hybrid approach allows for answers now rather than later.

Those answers are also more detailed and useful than the quick answers provided by analog equipment.

- Disadvantage

In more modern times, digital signal processors have replaced the need for hybrid computers.

Hybrid system

It is important to consider that a true hybrid computer is not simply a hybrid system. The hybrid computer is built with the necessary components to allow the device to operate with speed and precision.

Products marketed as hybrid systems are nothing more than digital computer equipment that has been supplemented with an analog-to-digital converter for the input, and a digital-to-analog converter to manage the output.

Such a system is typically considered less efficient than a true hybrid computer.

Examples

The gas pumps in a service station contain a processor that converts the fuel flow measurement into values ​​corresponding to quantity and price.

In business, these computers can be used in the chemical industry as process control systems.

HRS-100

An example of a standalone hybrid computer is the HRS-100, which was used extensively during the 1970s.

It was invented and developed to study dynamic systems on the real and accelerated time scale. Also for the efficient resolution of a wide range of scientific tasks in the institutes of the USSR.

Medical area

EKG, echocardiogram, ultrasound, and Holter monitoring machines are examples of hybrid computers.

Many of the diagnoses used in the medical field fall into this category.

For example, in the Intensive Care Unit of hospitals an analog device is used that measures the patient's blood pressure and temperature. These values ​​are converted and displayed on a digital display in numerical form.

Considering the speed with which hybrid computers can process data, research is being done on online processing of data.

In fact, a hybrid computer was installed at the Ohio University Center for Biomedical Engineering, where cardiac catheterization data is transmitted from different hospitals to the hybrid computer, via an infrared optical mechanism.

This data is analyzed in real time and the results are immediately available to the doctor. Thus, the waiting period between the catheterization procedure and the generation of results is considerably reduced.

HP Envy x2

It is an ultrathin hybrid personal computer that provides the benefit of having two devices built into one. It is a laptop that can also be used as a tablet.

It contains a screen that can be removed to become a tablet, by detaching it from the keyboard through a magnetic closure.

References

1. Definitions (2019). Definitions for Hybrid Computer. Taken from: definitions.net.
2. Wise Geek (2019). What is a Hybrid Computer? Taken from: wisegeek.com.
3. Center for Computing History (2019). What is a Hybrid Computer and Why? Taken from: computinghistory.org.uk.
4. Sciencing (2019). Types of Hybrid Computers. Taken from: sciencing.com.
5. Asba Lee (2019). The Advantages of Hybrid Computers. Taken from: techwalla.com.
6. Computer Hope (2019). Hybrid computer. Taken from: computerhope.com.