three computing drawbacks

G

George Mpouras

Not exactly a perl thread. Here are the three drawbacks (I think) that
have kept computing back

1) Binary system. For digital processors should be three or four states
so with the same hardware everything would be four times faster.

2) Bytes should have arbitrary length of “tribits†or “tetrabits
(Unicode is a definition because of the fixed 8bit bytes)

3) Clocks. Everything should be absolute asynchronous so the
chips/electronic would utilized only when needed. Less energy greedy and
faster
 
U

Uri Guttman

GM> Not exactly a perl thread. Here are the three drawbacks (I think)
GM> that have kept computing back

GM> 1) Binary system. For digital processors should be three or four
GM> states so with the same hardware everything would be four times
GM> faster.

been tried. some old russian system had 3 voltage states. much harder to
create in general and likely almost impossible on the scale of todays
chips. having a transistor go all the way on or off is easy. having a
circuit to check the level of voltage accurate is much more
complex. also the logic tables are not easily coded for. what are the
'tri-boolean' function results? also you don't get speedup, you gain
'density' but density is very very cheap now.

GM> 2) Bytes should have arbitrary length of “tribits†or “tetrabits
GM> (Unicode is a definition because of the fixed 8bit bytes)

already done. see PDP-10/decsystem 10 or 20. so unusable that a c
compiler on a dec 20 i used had to put each char in a 36 bit word. bytes
are any size you want on that cpu and sequential access support is built
in. random access is very tricky and slow as code has to do it.

GM> 3) Clocks. Everything should be absolute asynchronous so the
GM> chips/electronic would utilized only when needed. Less energy
GM> greedy and faster

also done already. it is a known thing that async hw will be faster and
use lower power. the problem is with design. sync systems are easier to
design with everything being latched at one time. you can isolate
sections and such. an async chip is much harder to design and it still
needs sync parts to connect to the outside world.

any other 'new' ideas that are actually very old?? :)

thanx,

uri
 
P

Peter J. Holzer

G

George Mpouras

I remember solving differential equations with capacitors and coils at the
lab.
Soem guys displayed fractals at the oscillograph !
 
C

Charlton Wilbur

"GM" == George Mpouras
GM> I have first pesrson experience Shmuel !

It would be a courtesy if you would start quoting enough context to make
your posts comprehensible.

Charlton
 
G

George Mpouras

It would be a courtesy if you would start quoting enough context to make
your posts comprehensible.

Charlton

Do you think quoting is so important any more with the tree view readers
like thunderbid ?
 
J

Jim Gibson

George Mpouras said:
Do you think quoting is so important any more with the tree view readers
like thunderbid ?

I am not using Thunderbird. My Usenet reader only shows one message at
a time. I believe many Usenet readers do the same. This is preferrable
to me, as I do not wish to see the entire thread each time I read the
newest posting.

If I want to see previous messages, I have to click on a link to see
the entire previous message, which does not have the latest posting in
it.

Therefore: yes, quoting to what your are responding is important for
some of us.
 
S

Scott Bryce

Do you think quoting is so important any more with the tree view
readers like thunderbid ?

I use Thunderbird, but I don't have it in tree view mode. I have it sort
posts by date. That way the most recent posts are at the bottom, and I
don't have to go looking for them. So, even for users of Thunderbird,
quoting can be very helpful.
 
C

Charlton Wilbur

"GM" == George Mpouras
GM> Do you think quoting is so important any more with the tree view
GM> readers like thunderbid ?

Point the first: if I did not, would I have admonished you for not
quoting?

Point the second: it would be a further courtesy if you did not make
unwarranted assumptions about what tools other people use.

When you write a post with no context whatsoever and impose a burden on
me of having to figure out what you're responding to before I determine
whether you're talking out of your ass or not, you move the default
assumption to "he's talking out of his ass" and you move the bozometer
one notch closer to "plonk." You may not care about that, but I
consider it a courtesy to warn you that you are barreling at high speed
down that path.

Charlton
 

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