Why binary and not ternary computing?

Question

Isn\'t a three state object immedately capable of holding more information and handling larger values? I know that processors currently use massive nets of XOR gates and th

Answer 1

To have a circuit operate in anything but binary, you must define how the other states will be represented. You've proposed a system of -1, 0, and +1, but transistors don't work that way, they like to have their voltage or current going in one direction only. To make a 3-state bit would take 2 transistors, but you could make 2 binary bits out of the same transistors and have 4 states instead of 3. Binary is just more practical at the low level.

If you tried to set thresholds on the circuit and use 0, +1, +2 instead, you run into a different set of problems. I don't know enough to go into details, but for logic circuits it's just more trouble than it's worth, especially when the industry is completely dedicated to binary already.

There is one area where multiple levels are used to get more than 2 states per bit: MLC flash memories. Even there the number of levels will be a power of 2 so that the output can be easily converted to binary for use by the rest of the system.

Answer 2

Another major hurdle is that there are a much larger number of logic operations that would need to be defined. The number of operators is found by the formula b^(b^i) where b is the base and i is the number of inputs. For a two input binary system this works out to 16 possible operators. Not all of this are usually implemented in gates and some gates cover more than one condition, however all of them can be implemented with three or less of the standard gates. For a two input ternary system this number is much higher about 19683. While several of these gates would be similar to one another, ultimately the ability to design basic circuits manually would be almost impossible. While even a freshmen engineering student is able to design basic binary circuits in their head.

Answer 3

The ternary equivalent of the 'bit' just caused too much outrage!

Answer 4

Sure but a ternary 'bit' (a tet?) would be more complicated, you'd still be storing the same amount of information, just in base3 instead of base2, and the power if two-state components is the simplicity. Why not just go ahead and make a 10-state base10

Binary computing is related to binary AND, OR and NOT gates, their immense simplicity and ability to be combined into arbitrarily complex structures. They are the cornerstone of literally all the processing your computer does.

If there was a serious case to switch to ternary or decimal then they would. It isn't a case of 'they tried it like that and it just stuck'

Answer 5

A lot of it has to do with the fact that ultimately, bits are represented as electrical impulses, and it's easier to build hardware that simply differentiates between "charged" and "no charge", and to easily detect transitions between states. A system utilizing three states has to be a bit more exact in differentiating between "charged", "partly charged", and "no charge". Besides that, the "charged" state is not constant in electronics: the energy starts to "bleed" eventually, so a "charged" state varies in actual "level" of energy. In a 3-state system, this would have to be taken into account, too.

Answer 6

I think it has more to do with programmability, conditional statements and the efficient use and functionality of transistors than anything else. It might be obvious that a nested IF is true if there is a current through a circuit, but how would a program know what to do if the solution could be achieved by a thousand different routes? It's interesting in regard to AI, where memory and learning are far more important than brute computational power.