4 ms·
Not just that. Arbitrary choices are made at every level of computing from even logic below the turing machine all the way up to javascript for browsers. Imagi
by crimsonalucard 7y ago
Not just that. Arbitrary choices are made at every level of computing from even logic below the turing machine all the way up to javascript for browsers.
Imagine if they decided to use 3 voltages to represent numbers. Instead of 3.5 volts for 1 and 0 volts for 0 what if we had a trinary representation 5 volts for 2, 3.5 for 1 and 0 volts for 0.
Or what if analog computing took off instead. Instead of trying to make everything digital we built machines that are functions of analog voltage waveforms and poured all of our abilities into reducing noise instead of upping clock speed.
Is the technology we use now the result of arbitrary choices made out of pure luck or given enough time all civilizations will develop digital computing due to inherit limitations of the physical world.
- nradov 7y agoNo need that imagine. Ternary computers have been built. They do work but are less practical than binary. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ternary_computer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ternary_computer
- crimsonalucard 7y agoYes I know. I'm saying what if we had put all our resources into this or some other form of computing. They have analog computers made out of gears as well.
- Ididntdothis 7y agoQuestion is : are they really less practical or have we just put a lot of effort into binary and with the same effort ternary would be better?
- nradov 7y agoI'm not a semiconductor engineer but it's hard to see how ternary logic could work reliably with modern low voltage 7nm process chips.
- crimsonalucard 7y agoThere's no clear benefit either.
- jdsully 7y agoThe beauty of digital is you are avoiding the “linear” portion of transistors and are always running them saturated. A ternary machine would require running the transistors in the linear region - which ultra small transistors are terrible at. There are alternative designs using +/0/- saturated signaling but those have higher voltages and larger transistor counts. I’ve played around with linear designs which can indeed use fewer parts but you need high quality transistors and they’d still be slow. https://hackaday.io/project/3628-trinity/log/11995-2-transistor-carry-function https://hackaday.io/project/3628-trinity/log/11995-2-transis...
- roelschroeven 7y agoThe first modern, electronic ternary computer was Setun, built in 1958 in the Soviet Union. It is claimed that it had notable advantages over the binary computers which eventually replaced it, such as lower electricity consumption and lower production cost. But as far as I understand it, the Setun actually used 2 bits to record 1 trit, according to the Google Translated English of the Russian Wikipedia article (https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Сетунь_(компьютер) https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Сетунь_(компьютер): "Based on the Gutenmacher binary ferritodiode cell, which is an electromagnetic proximity switch based on transformer-type magnetic amplifiers , N. P. Brusentsov developed a ternary ferritodiode cell [1] [2] , which operated in a two-bit ternary code, i.e. one trit was recorded in two binary digits, the fourth state of two binary digits was not used. ... Two-bit binary encoded ternary digits (2-Bit BinaryCodedTernary, 2B BCT representation, “two-wire”) using all 4 out of 4 possible codes (two out of 4 codes encode the same ternary digit out of 3)." Maybe the memory used actual trits, while the control logic used bits underneed? From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ternary_computer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ternary_computer it's not clear to me if there ever were computers that used real ternary logic, instead of just ternary memory and/or ternary logic implemented on top of binary logic.