Hybrid Processing

Abstract

The past decade has witnessed a revolution in digital electronics. As the cost per function has decreased, digital techniques have pushed the older analog methods into the background. This thesis explores a method of merging digital and analog techniques into a hybrid combination of the two. Representing the analog information as continuously variable intervals of time minimizes the effects of noise on the analogs data. Ensuring that only digital data pass from one computation to another prevents the accumulation of errors. As an example of hybrid processing, this thesis includes the design of a Large Scale Integrated (LSI) circuit that implements the Lee-Moore maze solving algorithm, extended to cover the two-layer path finding case. The use of digital information to describe the path geometry and analog information t o describe the path costs demonstrates the system's hybrid nature. The design of this system provided several lessons applicable to the design of other hybrid systems. It also unexpectedly demonstrated the importance of the communication structure in determining the costs involved in all kinds of processing. These lessons are summarized in the last chapter.