Higher bases for computers (binary to something else)

[vmrob]

the way i see it is that there could be higher bases in computer technology. in case you don't know a basic cd works like this:


_____________________________________________ <-empty cd


____/\_____/\_/\/\_____/\/\/\___________/\/\/\____ <- cd with stuff on it.

the dips and bumps in the surface of the cd deflect light when the laser is shined opon it. either (1) light is reflected back or (0) nothing. (binary: 1s & 0s)

now say you have more than one light sensor and you can change the bumps and other surface shapes:



--------^------_-----^^^--------_^^^------

you could have the light either reflected by (0) nothing (1) the primary sensor or (2) the secondary sensor.

thus you have a system that would (if ever used) be trinary(?). it would not only consist of 1s 0s but also 0s 1s and 2s. it woulld save a crap load of disk space. reducing your standard 8 bits per character to ..... i don't know. whatever this is

00000000
00000001
00000010
00000011
00000100
00000101
00000110
00000111
..... and so on
11111111

you would have

00000000
00000001
00000002
00000010
00000011
00000020
00000021
00000100

well point is you would have 00000000 to 11111111 (256 sets of numbers and stuff)

to:

00000000 to 22222222

that would yield lots more. aka reduced storage space, smaller programs and so on.

there is probly something i am just not thinking of here that would make this impossible.

EDIT:

One hindrence might be that the electrical signals sent by computers are either (0)off or (1)on. the way to fix this wouldbe to have more of a greyscale type of thing rather than a black and white picture.

you could set a "halfway" point relative to "off" and "on" this would be the (2) third part of the base.

[Falco Girgis]

Wow, that's really deep. I wouldn't of thought of that. I'm impressed. That's awesome.

[TiredSikTwisted]

That idea would interfere greatly with programming and it would also slow computers down. Also, those 0's and 1's come out to represent letters and numbers, throwing a 2 in there puts it all off balance.

[vmrob]

true. all programming would be screwed up and you would have to rebuild computers from scratch and it would be very difficult. but, if it was done a computer would be able to calculate things faster and store things in less space by reducing the "digits" it accually had to calculate.

[Falco Girgis]

It's not like it's impossible, but it'll NEVER happen because of that.

EVERYTHING would be just 100% completely screwed up. So screwed up that it definately wouldn't be worth it...

[TiredSikTwisted]

but, if it was done a computer would be able to calculate things faster and store things in less space by reducing the "digits" it accually had to calculate.

Uhrm... You sir, are wrong. The digits would not decrese any at all. There would actually one extra thing for a computer to look at and figure out. That would slow down things creatly and it would take a long time for a computer to process 3 different things. Think about it: 0=false 1=true. That is how a computer works. It is all cause and effect on a computer. It won't do anything unless something triggers it. Now what would happen when a 2 comes up there? It would have no place in a program so it would be totally and utterly useless. Interesting thought though.

[JS Lemming]

There have been a few people who attempted to build trinary computers before, mostly bringing very poor results. TiredSikTwisted is correct, but I still think its a better idea to only use the multy bump cd thing for a boost in storage per inch. Or maybe they could use a system where certain "colors" on a disk could represent different values, but they would need to make a sensor accurate enough to read those colors in at high speeds

On a side note: I've always wondered this. How do rewritable cds work if buring them involves makeing holes in the metal? How would shinniny a lazzer at a point.. fill it back in?

[TiredSikTwisted]

On a side note: I've always wondered this. How do rewritable cds work if buring them involves makeing holes in the metal? How would shinniny a lazzer at a point.. fill it back in?

I think there may be a different concept with rewritable disks. Maybe the laser writes the info on the disk instead of puncturing it which it can read. I think that may be why CD-R and CD-RW disks don't work on older computers and CD players.

[JS Lemming]

But I still wonder how it "writes" the data.

[DJ Yoshi]

It wouldn't work. It would slow down computers IMMENSELY. I mean, think about it--you want something to work in the simplest terms so that you can have speed and efficiency. Otherwise you're just adding variables that need to be checked for, in a sense.

[TiredSikTwisted]

but, if it was done a computer would be able to calculate things faster and store things in less space by reducing the "digits" it accually had to calculate.

Uhrm... You sir, are wrong. The digits would not decrese any at all. There would actually one extra thing for a computer to look at and figure out. That would slow down things greatly and it would take a long time for a computer to process 3 different things. Think about it: 0=false 1=true. That is how a computer works. It is all cause and effect on a computer. It won't do anything unless something triggers it. Now what would happen when a 2 comes up there? It would have no place in a program so it would be totally and utterly useless. Interesting thought though.

Beat ya there DJ

[DJ Yoshi]

I know, just restating it in case he missed it the first time.

[vmrob]

Or maybe they could use a system where certain "colors" on a disk could represent different values, but they would need to make a sensor accurate enough to read those colors in at high speeds

that might work for a smaller storage space but what you have to realize is that to meet the demands for larger density storage. the size of each bit will get smaller and smaller. evetually the grooves would be too small for even the wavelength of light to reflect properly, while that restriction is a while away. it would have to be something smaller. like electrons. it could be almost like what they do for electron microscopes.

for the sake of trinary computers:

a processor is basically a bunch or peices linked by wires that calculate true and false

(gyrovorbis and all others who know about boolean algebra: you know what i am talking about)

say you have a value "a" and value "b"

also say you have a circuit board

Code: Select all

      a_______
             |\_________
      b______|/

the device that allows the converging "a" and "b" will return a signal of "on" if and only if "a" or "b" is "on"

to programmers this is a simple "or" statment
the speed at which the value is calculated is independent of the amount of variables, rather dependent upon the physical properties of the wires. smaller, thinner, shorter = faster

let us say that i were to throw a "c","d", and "e" into the board

if all the switch does is return an "on" if any of the values is "on" would be the equivilent of taking two batteries and wiring them like so:

Code: Select all

     _______
   _| bat 1 |_____________________________
  | |-_____+|               ____________  |
  |________________________/ light bulb |_|
  |  _______               \____________| |
  |_| bat 2 |_____________________________|
    |-_____+|

just think of the batteries as being values "a" and "b". now while you are thinking of that imagine the luminocity of the bulb as being the digit produced. the lightbulb is going to light just as fast, but not as bright, if only one battery is on. if no batteries are on then the bulb is off, representing "0"

the hardware of computers works the same way. you have a super complex circuit that gives an "on" or an "off". now the parts in the cicuit were designed to handle only on or off. if they accepted an inbetween then the cicuit as a whole would run just as fast. the difference would be that there is an extra digit in there. it would have to "run" at the same speed as a normal computer but the results of cirtain equations would be about 1\3 faster because there is an extra digit to hold more information. in a shorter cpu cycle.

it seems that you guys are interpreting the processor as another piece of software and in which case yes, it would slow down. it would be like adding more if...then statments to your code. the longer the code is the longer it takes for the processor to handle because it is simply more digits being fed into it.

[JS Lemming]

Wait a second... weren't you the guy who started this post in the first place?

[vmrob]

yes. i am also trying to figure out why it wouldn't work.