Bimodal optical computers

Abstract

Analog optical solutions of numerical problems tend to be fast, simple, and inaccurate. Digital optical or electronic solutions to the same problems tend to be slower, harder, and more accurate. In circumstances outlined here, hybrid analog-digital systems can be built which give the accuracy of digital solutions with intermediate degrees of speed and simplicity. Because at any instant these processors are working in either the analog or the digital mode, we call them bimodal optical computers.