A tribute to ternary computing

[tokumei]

An old bud of mine from the RDF (kanokarob) and I once had a strong ambition to develop a ternary computer. It's been a long time since I've been able to contact him. At this point, I'm not sure of he's even interested in joining ORE. As a tribute to him and his huge contributions, I will continue to develop ternary in redstone. :3

[Iceglade]

I might be completely noobed out here, but what is the third state when using RS ternary?

[tokumei]

Here's the solution that we came up with:
We have two input lines per trit. The bottom line is 1, the top line is 2, and neither would be 0. However, since it is possible to input both 1 and 2 at the same time with this implementation, we simply clamp the value down to 2 using a piston that cuts off the bottom line whenever the top line is on.

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There are probably other ways to express ternary in redstone (ie signal strength), but that was the easiest to implement.

[Iceglade]

I see. That's a much more real-life implementation. However, is it possible to transmit over a single wire with the third state as a "floating" signal (on a 1-tick clock) and detect that?

[tokumei]

Idk, do you mean like a signal that stays on the bus longer? That could work, except it's not a good idea for serial.

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Also, in real life a good implementation would be to have positive/negative voltages, but that's not possible with redstone.

[Chibill]

How about a three state signal strength systemS

[xdot]

I see. That's a much more real-life implementation. However, is it possible to transmit over a single wire with the third state as a "floating" signal (on a 1-tick clock) and detect that?

Idk, do you mean like a signal that stays on the bus longer? That could work, except it's not a good idea for serial.

He is probably referring to a very old thread (~2011) on the minecraft forums that is now archived.

In essence, 1-tick clocks can activate pistons and repeaters but they cannot toggle redstone torches (If I recall correctly, torches won't even burn out). So, you can actually transmit three values over a single wire: On, Off and (Nano)Pulsing. You can use an old-school NOT-NOT and a repeater to decode or "stabilize" them.

[tokumei]

That might work, and would be a much better implementation for serial (though it would be stuck at 2 ticks minimum). Then, the three values could be 00, 11, and 01/10 (the pulsing one)

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How about a three state signal strength systemS

That is a good idea as well - 0 would be strength 0-4, 1 would be 5-9, 2 would be 10-15. However, a bus using that implementation would have a very significant delay, unless one were to convert the signal to another representation that doesn't use signal strength.

[Chibill]

No only about 1 tick per 5 blocks. Slow but not super slow.

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Maybe even 19 blocks per tick delay with a global clock to reset some stuff.

[tokumei]

Well, it's still significantly slower than any other type of bus. I'd prefer either completely changing the implementation or at least converting to another on a bus.

[Chibill]

Or your way plus insta wire. Or instant if we get command blocks.

[tokumei]

Yeah, command block busing is also a good choice.

[Chibill]

I am going to make a huge data drive in 1.7 using command blocks in single player.