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Ternary Computing Revisited

Posted by timothy on from the no-that'll-be-a-table-for-three dept.

Black Acid writes: "American Scientist's Third Base was a nice introduction to the advantages base 3 but didn't really explain ternary computing. Since 1995, Steve Grubb has maintained trinary.cc which covers many aspects of computing with base 3. Not only are the basic unary and binary gates enumerated, which I independently verified as being basic building blocks, but real-world circuits are described also. Half and full adders, multiplexers and demultiplexers, counters, shift registers, and even the legendary flip-flap-flop are all covered with ternary algebra equations and schematics. Steve Grubb touches on problems of of interfacing to binary computers elegantly, although no schematics are given. Perhaps most impressive are the Transistor Models - schematics of the basic gates which can be built from cheap parts available at your local electronic component store."

4 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. on, off, ? by eric6 · · Score: 4, Funny

    does ternary processing mean you will be using on, off, and some third state of electricity? "dim"?

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    fight global cooling

    1. Re:on, off, ? by popeyethesailor · · Score: 5, Funny

      Close. It's like On,Off and CowboyNeal.

  2. If a... by tonywestonuk · · Score: 2, Funny

    If a Bit is short for Binary Digit...

    Does that mean that a Ternary digit is a 'Tart'? Do 8 Tarts make a 'Tight'?

    We could be having MegaTights of Ram, and GigaTights (or even TeraTights) of disk!

    Tony

  3. Dude. Totally. by glowingspleen · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Dude, check this out. So I'm reading this news site for nerds, right, and I see this article on computers that work on some "base 3" kinda deal. So I'm like Damn! Those PCs can get to third base! I wonder if I can learn some tips from em?"

    "So I call one up and we agree to meet out at Woody's on 4th. And this PC never shows up. So I just keep drinking, waiting for it. I musta had too many because all I know is that I woke up in this apartment on 84th with these three midgets screaming at me in portugeuse."

    "Damn unreliable computers."

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