Raphael ThysWhy Analog Lost
Quantum Computing Probably Will Too
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Published in
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18 min read
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Nov 25, 2019
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Sundar Pichai showing off Google’s recent quantum leap forward. I don’t think he buys it either.
I’ve spent most of my career building analog stuff — primarily the innards of silicon chips. For most of the past decade that was at Apple, where I designed the analog parts of overwhelmingly digital processors which serve as the brain of every iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.
Point being, I have a whole lot of personal incentive for analog to, well, matter. The value of my personal skill-set is pretty well tied to the value of analog electronics in general. So it would be well within my self-interest to back a growing trend, and predict a coming analog renaissance.
But I won’t.
I don’t expect a comeback any time in the near future, or even any time in the distant future. Instead this article is about why analog lost in the first place, why that result is likely to stick, and whether any looming developments — particularly AI — have a chance to reverse it. We’ll conclude with implications for the presumed next paradigm, quantum computing.
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