why stop there. why not use infinitely many symbols. you could express literally any message using a single symbol
Oliver Brown
Look up quantum computing
Benjamin Walker
because circuits are either on or off.
Aaron Martin
Trinary computers have been built, but they're vastly more complex and aren't as fast.
Nathan Lewis
this is what happens when math and physics students attempt computer science
Connor Thomas
I would guess that OP isn't even a STEM student
Julian Campbell
Computer hardware uses high/low to indicate the two states. More states would require voltage measurement. It is because of practical constraints. Only 9 combos are available in one tri-bit. They would still have had to join tribits for the original 256 characters in one character set. Multiplying by two is easy (2^20 is1048576), but even 3^5 is too onerous to calculate.
John Cook
I hate it when people are snarky to those who don't study their field. It doesn't make you look smart
OP computers don't read or write tiny little characters like 0,1,2 etc. They read switchs which are either in an on or off position which can be represented as 1 and 0. You might be interested in looking into quantum computing but beware those who say it's coming any time soon
Zachary Bell
Fun fact, some early computers used a decimal system. Each bit could be at one of ten voltages corresponding to 0-9. They stopped making those when they realized the problems with bit decay that came with it.
Xavier Moore
almost like china
Jayden Miller
What is a brain.
>Ternary computer
Matthew Campbell
>Beware those who say its coming anytime soon 1) you worded that retardedly 2) d-wave is already selling quantum computers. Its not that its coming soon, it passed you about 3 years ago.
Because it is hard to decide between more then 2 different states. Transistors who can decide between 2 states are very easy to build and more importantly can be build on very small scales. Having a transistor who can decide between 3 states is vastly more complex and harder to scale down.
Ternary computers have been build, but they are not really useful.
Joshua Wood
Is there any advantage to this at all?
Eli Reed
Because 1 and 0 represent true and false.
Henry Adams
NO
NO GOD DAMN IT
THATS NOT HOW IT FUCKING WORKS
AAAAAAAGH FUCK NO NO NO NO NO NOOO
Jason Williams
Assuming there were no engineering/physical constraints, are there reasons that cause some systems to be better than others? would a 1000-bit computing be better than binary computing?
Kayden Nelson
The actual answer is that EM interference can change the voltage in a wire. 0 is therefore represented as "somewhere between 0v and 2v" and 1 is represented as somewhere between "3v and 5v." In other words binary encodings are more robust for storage and transmission than non-binary encodings. This also applies to mechanical devices like optical discs.
John Rodriguez
This.
Because voltage fluctuates. Using a higher base would increase the chances of the numbers getting mixed up.
Jace Collins
mind = blown
Caleb Lewis
That is actually possible. They are called analog computers.You pretty much have an infinite amount of states which each represent a real number (say, a voltage or current). Because their precision heavily depends on imperfections of the electronic or mechanical parts (which are subject to decay), they have been replaced by digital computers. Part of the components are still in use to this day though not labeled as analog computers.
Connor Cook
If I remember correctly, e actually has the best ratio of number of symbols to word length or something, so 3 symbols would actually be better than the 2 we are using in that regard (I don't remember the details off the top of my head). People actually tried building ternary computers in the past, I believe.
However, it turns out that having only 2 symbols is just easier and less prone to error and therefore faster in practice.
Parker Russell
Well, a 0,1,2 might work or more of 0-9 counter base. Each number would represent a power/frequencies
Jayden Allen
They ask question about the other field?
What the actual fuck is your problem?
Julian Sanchez
Analog transistor computers exist. And in fact the cheaper flash memory uses multiple values to store data instead of binary.
Experience has shown the reliability and speed of digital computing to be better in almost everything when compared with analog computers. But your free to go make one if you wish. If you can make a better bit coin miner for instance you can make millions.
Sebastian Diaz
>D-wave >quantum computing
pick one
Jack Long
yeah, and you only need to travel from one end of the universe to the other end just to begin constructing your message.
think, idiot
Dylan Bennett
How much would making one conceivably cost?
Easton Young
Look up quantum computing, here's a good introductory video:
So they should just make one that doesn't have interference
Camden Ramirez
for most data transmission, you don't use binary encodings
i would wager it's more that it's impractical to do logic circuits with more than 2 states
Dominic Reed
I'm finishing it off using a wikipedia page www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ternary_computer/ TL:DR; A computer which uses 0,1,2 exists, but using 0,1 is more convenient, check for more info
Oh they're selling them. They're just not actually making them.
D-Wave's computers have been repeatedly shown by independent testers to either have no or little evidence of quantum behaviour - which is admittedly ambiguous because of how bizarre quantum shit is - and absolutely proven to be no faster than standard computers - which is not ambiguous.
This should sort of be obvious since non-commercial scientists were struggling to get 8 qubits working, when this company suddenly came out with a five hundred qubit computer.
So yeah. No.
Adam Powell
why not use binary for computations and convert to binary at the end? maybe using a binary coded decimal to decimal converter?
Robert Reed
Just use three outputs for 1 and 0 and you'll have as much combinations as you do for 0, 1 and 2 just without the need to build completely new circuits.
Jace Gonzalez
This is the answer to OPs question. I'm surprised that OP knows what binary is, but doesn't know why
Ayden Lewis
>OP computers don't read or write tiny little characters like 0,1,2 etc.
This actually made me laugh
Benjamin Parker
wrong, this is how electrical circuits work. there are other types of circuits though.
Ternary Computers exist and if we can build them with precise enough hardware they indeed are more efficient than binary computers.
It means a radical change not only in circuit development and logic construction but also in the way we calculate in our heads as ternary offers very convenient properties when it comes to written arithmetics.
to anyone thinking binary is the only way computers can exist I recommend you broaden your worldview because you are wrong.
Oliver Adams
...
Blake Green
>And in fact the cheaper flash memory uses multiple values to store data instead of binary.
It's kind of funny how we just those extra values to store extra bits per cell instead of trits or quits or whatever.
Jace Jones
These are some of the best comments in the thread. There is no need to link OP to youtube links about quantum computing because that is kind of an unrelated thing to what he is asking.
I just read up on the analog computer wikipedia page and it's interesting af. I highly recommend anyone to do the same, and the read the four comments I linked.
Daniel Edwards
more like True and False
Connor Davis
I feel like this is going somewhere. What if the data itself wasn't transmitted by copper but by fibre optic? You could use a much more concise range of wavelengths to decide between each state and there would be minimal interference as it doesn't interact as much, or even at all as electrons do in a small magnetic field
Nicholas Thompson
actually is a pretty shit comment senpai
Thomas Gray
Why did thread continue after this post? OP is clearly retarded or trolling.
Dylan Rivera
>reengineering processors or >just using it to store extra bits per cell
are people on this board really this retarded
Alexander Martinez
Because that is not true.
Jackson Garcia
go back to ur middle school science class boy u dont know shit