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.