Developers Notes - Challenges in development

Developers Notes: A series of thoughts on SBTCVM's development.

Overview:
SBTCVM. Simple Balanced Ternary Computer Virtual Machine.

Its definitely not a simple project... while most VMs and emulators are based on existing hardware, SBTCVM isn't... its not even based on the same computer logic paradigm as the computers it runs on...

As you might guess, this poses many challenges in both developing the code, and also research into the obscure world of Balanced Ternary computers in general...

Those 3 simple values... Positive, Ground, and Negative... have a certain elegance to them...  and that basic idea of 3 balanced states is represented in SBTCVM's mascot:

The three ears and three eyes are more than a design choice, they symbolize the key difference balanced ternary has with binary. a balanced base three, instead of an unbalanced base two...

Deep meanings aside, it is definitely striking isn't it?


Balanced Ternary Is quite Obscure...  The SBTCVM dev team could just reverse engineer one of the many balanced ternary microprocessors right? no... Yes, I'm being sarcastic, Balanced Ternary is quite an obscure little base number, though it is at least, one with some solid footing... strewn through the history of computing, are various stories on people taking the plunge into the peculiar base number... From the Russian Setun computer, to Thomas Fowler's ternary calculating machine, to even modern-day projects, like balanced ternary adders, multiplexers, and of course, the SBTCVM project.

In the end, SBTCVM is less a new paradigm, and more, part of a rebirth of one.

So what Attracts people to balanced ternary? some say its boredom with binary, others say it is its simple elegant concepts, and others seem to have different reasons altogether...


SBTCVM:  Changing computing; 3 trits at a time.