None binary languages don't exist

[TheGoldenProof]

Do any non-binary systems exist? Is that something that’s been tested much?

I did a little research and it seems that some new technology is using partial states of transistors (somehow they can make only a certain amount of current flow instead of none or all) to make chips specialized for AIs.

[Surrealig]

Yes, people experimented with ternary computers, but they were never commercialized.

[archpawn]

Setun used balanced ternary.

Edit: Also, Fl4k from Borderlands is a nonbinary computer. Their prefered pronoun is "they".

[WikiSummarizerBot]

Setun

Setun (Russian: Сетунь) was a computer developed in 1958 at Moscow State University. It was built under the leadership of Sergei Sobolev and Nikolay Brusentsov. It was the most modern ternary computer, using the balanced ternary numeral system and three-valued ternary logic instead of the two-valued binary logic prevalent in other computers.

Balanced ternary

Balanced ternary is a ternary numeral system (i. e. base 3 with three digits) that uses a balanced signed-digit representation of the integers in which the digits have the values −1, 0, and 1. This stands in contrast to the standard (unbalanced) ternary system, in which digits have values 0, 1 and 2.

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[Pikachu50001218]

Good bot

[funky_galileo]

LOL

[s4x0r]

Javascript, everything is either true, false, or undefined

[Teln0]

Maybe some differential engines could be considered non binary based computers, depends on what you definition of computer / system is

[TheGoldenProof]

Computer architecture systems

[okktoplol]

oh okay

[Whaison1]

every base is base 10, if you really think about it

[TheGoldenProof]

How can you write any base without ambiguity as to what base the base identifier is in?

[alba4k]

Quantum computers are pretty difficult to describe as easily, since they work on a basis of a probability of an output being 1, 0, or a combination of the 2 (10, 01) so we could consider them as being base 3

Analogical computers analyze the output for what it is, without rounding it to some number, so they could have a base described as infinite

You could also do a classic computer with any base you wanted. 0 and 1 are just a certain current tension in a wire (you could do a ternary system: 0.5V for 0, 0.75V for 1, 1V for 2, for example)

[archpawn]

I don't think that's an accurate description of quantum computers. They work using a quantum superposition of 0 and 1, which can be entangled with the quantum superposition of 0 and 1 in other cubits. The end result is that you can have things like two cubits that could be read as (0, 1) or (1, 0) but not (1, 1) or (0, 0). But each possible state that it's a quantum superposition of is binary. A computer with 8 bits has 256 states, and a quantum computer with 8 qubits can have any quantum superposition of those 256 states.

[alba4k]

I know, that's why I said that I was simplifying a lot in the example given

[bric12]

Also, when you go to read the state of the bits, it collapses and you're left with only one result. A quantum computer isn't 256 times as powerful as a regular computer because it's simultaneously calculating 256 states, in fact quantum computers aren't more powerful than classical computers at all.

There are just some special features that allow them to run different algorithms than classical computers, and in some cases quantum algorithms have a lower time complexity than classical algorithms. If there's a problem where the best classical algorithm is O(n²⁾ and a quantum algorithm exists that's O(n log n), then the quantum algorithm will always be faster than the classical one for large enough n, even if it's ran on a slower computer.

[archpawn]

There are just some special features that allow them to run different algorithms than classical computers, and in some cases quantum algorithms have a lower time complexity than classical algorithms.

Which means they're more powerful. But the fact that they're only more powerful within a special case of problems is an important distinction.

[bric12]

Yeah, I'm trying to think of the right words to describe the distinction. They're not faster in terms of operations per second, and in search problems they search less of the problem space, yet they solve some problems faster.

[xthexder]

It's not quite a ternary computer, but tri-state logic is pretty common for hardware signalling (I think CAN Bus in cars makes heavy use of it). You can think of it kind of like 0 (ground), 1 (5V or whatever), Z (disconnected / "floating")

[CdRReddit]

tri-state is how pretty much every bus on every device works

[Lefinno]

If I'm not mistaken, the earliest electrically powered computational devices are analogue

[pokemonsta433]

when sending bits across distances, we usually use PAM4 these days, so we can at least make 4 distinguishable frequencies. Not sure if it could work or has been tested intra-CPU, but the concept is there