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Analog computing is often considered to be an outdated technology only to be found and cared for in museums but not as the basis of modern cutting edge computing. Nothing could be further from reality. Together with quantum computers, analog computers complement today's stored program digital computers, acting as co-processors for certain types of computationally intensive tasks. They are highly energy efficient and exhibit a degree of parallelism that by far surpasses classic digital computers. In contrast to quantum computers, analog computers do not require exotic technologies, no intricate cooling systems, no elaborate shielding systems, etc. In addition to this there already exists a plethora of proven programs for analog computers to solve a wide variety of problems. This paper describes the necessity of analog computing for the twenty-first century, gives a short introduction to the structure and programming of analog computers, before discussing future application areas. Analog computing will drastically alter the way we think about computing in the years to come as it will become an integral part of every high performance computer. It will be an indispensable technology for future AI systems, it will revolutionize many medical applications, it might even replace or at least complement, certain types of quantum computers, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an unconventional architecture and algorithm for implementing reservoir computing on FPGA. An architecture-oriented algorithm with improved throughput and architecture designed to reduce memory and hardware resource requirements are presented. The proposed architecture exhibits good performance in terms of benchmarks for reservoir computing. A prediction accelerator for reservoir computing that operates on 55.45 mW at 450 K fps with <3000 LEs is realized by implementing the architecture on FPGA. The proposed approach presents a novel FPGA implementation of reservoir computing focussing on both algorithms and architecture that may serve as a basis for applications of AI at network edge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]