ANALOG INTELLIGENCE

A SQUARE­MILLIMETER FUTURE—THE ANALOG COMPUTER ON A CHIP

THE INNOVATOR:

ANALOG PIONEER BERND ULMANN

Prof. Dr. Bernd Ulmann is a passionate man of action. Fascinated with analog computers since his teenage years, his enthusiasm only seems to grow. His home is halfworkshop and half-museum, filled to the brim with (sometimes) giant analog computers, soldering stations and microscopes. His wife apparently tolerates it, but “prefers to live somewhere else.” Although they see each other on a daily basis and love each other very much said Ulmann reassuringly.

A day does not have enough hours for this university professor, museum director, collector, repairman and VAX-man, as he is called in his scene (named after the legendary VAX computer). For him, it is analog or nothing. Digital is too simple and not human enough. The reason? A normal digital computer is controlled by a program, an algorithm, meaning that it carries out individual steps and processes them one after another. To analog computers, on the other hand, step-by-step execution is a foreign concept— with them, all computing elements work in parallel. In principle, they are like a nervous system. Like the human brain. Quite biological. Nothing in the biological realm can afford to compute sequentially. That is why the future is analog computers, explained Ulmann with the vehemence of a VAX-man.

INNOVATION: AN ANALOG COMPUTER ON A CHIP

The problem with conventional digital computers, stressed Ulmann, is the fact that they consume too much energy and meet physical limitations. “Classical computing has come to an end. We need new ideas for high-performance computing— and energy-efficient computing as well.”

That is why Ulmann’s dream and goal are to build an analog computer that is faster than any digital computer, and which sips a minimum of energy. The actual innovation is putting the analog computer on a chip the way we have digital computers on a chip today. In addition to minimizing its size, the goal is also to have the option to program the analog computer using a digital computer. This involves developing an analog computer on a chip that is only a few square millimeters in size. It is a disruption that is revolutionizing signal processing in cell phones and medical implants like pacemakers. According to Ulmann, it is not magic—it is doable. To make it a reality, Bernd Ulmann founded anabrid GmbH together with visionaries from various industries.

Anabrid Is Building Analog Computers For The German Aerospace Center

For over two years, SPRIND incubated the “analog computer on a chip” project. By placing validation studies, SPRIND provided the initial financing for development of the project and created a road map for the analog computer on a chip together with the team. Following this, the project was to be moved forward through the founding and financing of the Analog Intelligence

SPRIND subsidiary. Thanks to intensive support from SPRIND, anabrid GmbH developed the first project for getting to know analog technology for research, teaching and interested geeks: ‘The Analog Thing,’ or THAT, for short. It is a cost-effective, open-source and open-hardware analog computer. THAT has already been presented to the eleven million subscribers of the popular “Veritasium” science channel on YouTube.

In the fall of 2021, SPRIND was able to present anabrid in the context of the research funding program for quantum computers in Ulm, Germany. As part of the quantum initiatives of the Institute for Quantum Technology at the German Aerospace Center and supported by SPRIND, anabrid will make its technology available for the investigation of quantum technologies and hybrid computer architectures. Due to the overlap of funding with the center, the original plans of Analog Intelligence cannot be further implemented. This is why the involved parties amicably decided in June 2022 that Analog Intelligence would not be continuing its research and development activities as planned, and that anabrid GmbH would fully concentrate on the order from the German Aerospace Center instead.