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To: dayglored
FORTRAM IV was my first computer language, back in 1970...
in about 1960 I had two computer courses in engineering school - an elective and a required course.

The elective? FORTRAN.

The required course? Analog computation.


50 posted on 07/06/2015 11:56:04 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion ('Liberalism' is a conspiracy against the public by wire-service journalism.)
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion
> The required course? Analog computation.

Ah, that's very cool. Granted, they're not used widely these days, but they still have applications.

I never got to take an analog computation course, having entered college in 1970.

But in 1979 I was designing a variable-speed/variable-voltage 3-phase inverter for induction motors in the 5-20HP range. The heart of the control system was an integrator/differentiator stage with second-derivative feedback. It had to operate very smoothly with high precision to ensure system stability. The microprocessors of that time weren't fast enough at precision math to make the control scheme work. So after the initial calculations, the uP drove a D/A converter to feed a three-op-amp analog computer that implemented the integrator/differentiator stage. The output of the I/D stage was A/D converted back to continue the digital control algorithm. Worked quite well, and had the additional advantage that we could hang a scope probe on the I/D op-amp pins to see what was going on during debug.

52 posted on 07/06/2015 6:15:32 PM PDT by dayglored (Meditate for twenty minutes every day, unless you are too busy, in which case meditate for an hour.)
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