Ternary Computers

[AlexanderHowl]

I was wondering if anyone used games where ternary computers became dominant over binary computers (unlike OTL, where the opposite occurred)? A ternary computer uses three states (1, 0, and -1 in balanced ternary logic) or a trit while a binary computer uses two states (1 and 0) or a bit. In OTL, Soviet academics explored ternary computing in the 1950s and created cheaper, faster, and more energy efficient computers than the companies of the USA, but Soviet politics made the USSR adopt binary computers instead.

The advantage of a ternary computer over a binary computer becomes obvious when you look into the difference in computational density. A byte, which is eight bits, possesses 256 states. A tryte, which could be eight trits, would possess 6,561 states (over 25 times as much information). Eight bytes possess over 1.8×10^19 states while eight trytes would possess over 3.4×10^30 states.

[mhd]

I had this ages ago for an alien race with three arms, three sexes etc.
This being sci-fi, the inefficiencies of the general setup didn't matter anyway. Although these days I'd probably just come up with some quantum hoopledeedoo.

I can't really see any campaign where this actually matters, though. Unless I'd be doing a ternary logic puzzle -- most likely the last thing I'd ever do as a GM.

[ericbsmith]

Really there's not an advantage to systems other than binary, and some serious drawbacks. Binary is essentially "Power On" and "Power Off." Other systems were looked into, where you would use different voltage states for different values, but you begin to run into issues of discerning a transition voltages from an intended voltage, and the chances of errors in your computations become more and more likely. You also have to fight between using higher voltages, where steps in voltage are more easily discernible, and power usage and heat from the higher voltages, which is always a problem with integrated circuits.

Here's a ComputerPhile video discussing using binary vs decimal in computers, but the principle is the same whether you're talking binary, trinary, bi-quinary, decimal, etc.

I also don't see much gaming difference between the two systems. If you have a good working computer you have a good working computer. Programming between the two systems would be completely different specialties, unless you have a compiler which uses the same higher level language but can compile to the different systems.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

Programming between the two systems would be completely different specialties, unless you have a compiler which uses the same higher level language but can compile to the different systems.

Which you almost certainly do unless you're rather early in the computer age or one of the systems is very newly encountered.

[AlexanderHowl]

A ternary computer could use polarization of light rather than the application of current for computation (meaning that it would be a natural fit for optical computers). In general though, ternary computers could store much more information (a kilotryte would hold around 4.3×10^1408 more states than a kilobyte)

[Stormcrow]

Ternary computers could store much more information assuming it took the same amount of physical space for a given number of bits and trits. Does it?

I don't think you can just say that ternary computers would be exactly like binary computers except for greater storage capacity. The way things work would be completely different.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

The advantage of a ternary computer over a binary computer becomes obvious when you look into the difference in computational density. A byte, which is eight bits, possesses 256 states. A tryte, which could be eight trits, would possess 6,561 states (over 25 times as much information).

Nowhere close. 6561 distinct states is only 12.68 bytes. In any case, the functional effect of ternary computation is nonexistent, because at anything above the lowest level you don't actually care how the data is stored.

[whswhs]

Ternary computers have not been worth any serious effort up to now. Writing 500,000 takes 19 binary digits, but 12 ternary digits, which does save some space. But as long as Moore's Law holds out, if you wait about a year, you'll save that much space just by using the new chips. Engineering ternary chips, and designing new systems around them, would probably take at least as long and would take a lot of extra work and expense. Unless there were some bigger advantage to be gained than saving space, I don't see it happening.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

A ternary computer could use polarization of light rather than the application of current for computation (meaning that it would be a natural fit for optical computers). In general though, ternary computers could store much more information (a kilotryte would hold around 4.3×10^1408 more states than a kilobyte)

Information is propertional not to the number of states, but to the logarithm of the number of states. Eight bits will distingush 64 states, but sixteen bits will distinguish 4096 states with only twice as much information.

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

Programming between the two systems would be completely different specialties, unless you have a compiler which uses the same higher level language but can compile to the different systems.

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Which you almost certainly do unless you're rather early in the computer age or one of the systems is very newly encountered.

Yes & No. If you have the two types of systems working side-by-side you'll certainly have compilers that can compile to either standard, as we currently do with Linux, Mac, and Windows, x86, x64, and ARM (which are all binary, but need to be compiled to different standards). However if the two computer standards are the product of different nation-states that don't intermingle or - more drastically - if the alternate system is the result of a parallel world or alien race (i.e. Infinite Worlds or most Sci-Fi) you are unlikely to have a compiler that is compatible with both systems until somebody sits down and figures out how to make one.