[sdiy] Is everything digital?

[Aaron Lanterman]

On Sat, 14 May 2005, Glen wrote:

> Scott, you are confusing digital with binary. It's entirely possible to
> have digital electronics which operate with more than two states. This is
> somewhat equivalent to counting in different number bases. Of course,
> binary is by far the most common form of digital electronics, but I have
> seen trinary circuitry. (No, I'm not referring to the "high impedance"

One of my computer engineering profs at Wash U told us that a while back 
someone figured out a computer could work most efficiently (for some 
measure of efficiency I can't remember) if it worked in base "e". Of 
course e = 2.7 something isn't an integer, which makes things a bit 
tricky. They figured 3 was closer to "e" than 2, hence interest in trinary 
circuits for while, but they were eventually determined to be more trouble 
than they were worth.

- Aaron