Charas-Project

Off-Topic => All of all! => Topic started by: Trevlac on July 14, 2006, 10:49:16 PM

Title: Ternary Computers
Post by: Trevlac on July 14, 2006, 10:49:16 PM

I was reading about binary computers randomly on Wikipedia. But I found a link to "Ternary Computers" within it.

Ternary Computer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ternary_computer)

It's very interesting. What's weird is during Tech School last year I thought of inventing one...unbeknownst to me, one was invented in the 1950's...grr Soviets.

The idea I had came about when my instructor explained how a computer performs the subtraction function. He explained that it adds the inverse (as is true in all mathematics) but since there are no negative numbers in simple computer binary, it had to use a clever trick called "one's compliment" to achieve "two's compliment" which you can read about here: Two's Compliment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two%27s_complement)
Which is what lead me to think of a computer capable of expressing -1, 0, and 1. Unbeknownst to me, it already existed. I'm sort of happy it did - that way the burden isn't upon me to invent one.

The computing power of a Ternary Computer would be amazing. You think 4 Ghz is fast...we'd be significantly farther along if computers didn't have to use Two's Compliment every time they needed to subtract. It just sucks that society never caught on.

There's a lot of things that could be better. QWERTY keyboards are proven less adept than the Dvorak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard) version. Our Decimal counting system would be more efficient as a base 8 (octal) or base 12 (duodecimal).

Having to use the One's Compliment of a binary number to achieve the Two's Compliment is exceedingly inefficient. Luckily, some students at the University of Moscow are trying to change all of that. They are working on a Ternary computer, here is an article about it: Here (http://www.computer-museum.ru/english/setun.htm)

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Post by: Tomi on July 14, 2006, 11:00:54 PM

Wow, thats pretty sweet.  But if 0 is off and 1 is on, what is -1?

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Post by: Trevlac on July 14, 2006, 11:56:37 PM

Off and on are just expression to help the mind cope with 0 and 1. You would add another expression that would mean "inverse on" to represent -1.

Quick, if off is on's opposite, what is its inverse?

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Post by: PyroAlchemist on July 15, 2006, 12:00:58 AM

A big pain in the arse?

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Post by: Archem on July 15, 2006, 02:17:19 AM

It's "in", dumbass! :p

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Post by: Desimodontidae on July 15, 2006, 10:16:30 AM

Maybe if you werent such a queer you wouldnt have that problem!!!!!

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Post by: Trevlac on July 15, 2006, 02:24:03 PM

Quote

Originally posted by Desimodontidae
Maybe if you werent such a queer you wouldnt have that problem!!!!!

o.o





Yes...unqueering oneself does seem to solve the problem...

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Post by: Desimodontidae on July 15, 2006, 02:28:54 PM

Worked for me.

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Post by: SonicChaos7 on July 15, 2006, 03:39:41 PM

It helped my neighbor, who died the next day. Hmmm... wonder what happened.

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Post by: WarxePB on July 15, 2006, 04:20:02 PM

It is a cool concept, but I doubt that it'll catch on.

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Post by: DragonBlaze on July 16, 2006, 03:13:41 AM

I think its a cool idea. But I'm thinking if they change the way the computer works, they'll have to totally change everything such as operating systems, software, hardware, etc. Such changes would be hard to do, and not to mention very costly to change the whole computer market.

And how would a base 8 or a base 12 number system be any better than our good base 10 system?

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Post by: Cosmos on July 16, 2006, 03:50:43 AM

Quote

Originally posted by Desimodontidae
Maybe if you werent such a queer you wouldnt have that problem!!!!!

XD!! :taunt: *hides*

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Post by: Archem on July 16, 2006, 04:00:17 AM

Quote

Originally posted by Midnight

quote:

Originally posted by Desimodontidae Maybe if you werent such a queer you wouldnt have that problem!!!!!

XD!! :taunt: *hides*

Where ya hiding? In the closet?!! Got a secret for us?!!
If so... Yay! :D
If not... Still yay! :D

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Post by: Cosmos on July 16, 2006, 04:07:46 AM

Quote

Originally posted by Archem2

quote:

Originally posted by Midnight quote: Originally posted by Desimodontidae Maybe if you werent such a queer you wouldnt have that problem!!!!! XD!! :taunt: *hides*

Where ya hiding? In the closet?!! Got a secret for us?!!
If so... Yay! :D

You die..now. ^^

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Post by: Drace on July 16, 2006, 11:08:55 AM

Quote

Originally posted by Midnight

quote:

Originally posted by Archem2 quote: Originally posted by Midnight quote: Originally posted by Desimodontidae Maybe if you werent such a queer you wouldnt have that problem!!!!! XD!! :taunt: *hides* Where ya hiding? In the closet?!! Got a secret for us?!! If so... Yay! :D

You die..now. ^^

Don't be mad for his expressions of love to the thought of you being a lesbian. Hell, I would say the same.
So if so... YAY!

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Post by: Trevlac on July 16, 2006, 02:18:43 PM

I doubt the whole market would have to change. Just operating systems and some softwares.

I bet they've got a way around that little snag, otherwise it would be dropped.

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Post by: Cosmos on July 16, 2006, 04:38:41 PM

Quote

Originally posted by Drace

quote:

Originally posted by Midnight quote: Originally posted by Archem2 quote: Originally posted by Midnight quote: Originally posted by Desimodontidae Maybe if you werent such a queer you wouldnt have that problem!!!!! XD!! :taunt: *hides* Where ya hiding? In the closet?!! Got a secret for us?!! If so... Yay! :D You die..now. ^^

Don't be mad for his expressions of love to the thought of you being a lesbian. Hell, I would say the same.
So if so... YAY!

You guys are such...guys!!  :bee_wtf: