Manuscript received December 3, 2024; revised January 14, 2025; accepted February 4, 2025, February 25, 2025.
Abstract—Towards the end of the previous century, the former Soviet Union attempted to develop a computer based on the ternary operation system. However, this project ultimately failed to succeed for various reasons. The most commonly used computer system in the world today is founded on the binary computing format. Both ternary and traditional computers rely on the foundational structure of the binary system, which originated from gate switching in logic circuits and voltage differences in signal transmission. However, is the number two always the optimal choice for computation? Extensive research in this area was conducted in the former Soviet Union. However, there has been limited research and development in this direction. This phenomenon piqued our interest, and thus this study conducted a comprehensive literature review on ternary computers to provide an all-inclusive overview of the field. This study gathered a significant amount of literature on ternary arithmetic units, covering topics such as the ternary concept, ternary architecture, ternary energy efficiency, etc. In summary, this body of literature delves into the potential for developing computers that employ ternary arithmetic units and discusses the prospect of such machines. In a relatively less-explored field, this study conducted a literature review on ternary computers. It contributed new insights that could be valuable for the future development of ternary arithmetic units.
Keywords—ternary computer, ternary arithmetic units, energy efficiency, computer development
Cite: Yiming Chen, "Feasibility Study of a Logic Gate for the Ternary Operation of a Process Unit,"
International Journal of Engineering and Technology, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 49-54, 2025.
Copyright © 2025 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).
