A computer that uses ternary circuits comprising three stages rather than binary circuits, which operate in two. A ternary computer named Setun was built at the Moscow State University in 1958, and an enhanced Setun-70 was created in 1970. Although the ternary computers used less electricity than binary computers, they were superceded by binary machines, which are the norm.
Research Continues
As new transistor architectures are developed, computers with ternary circuits may be built in the future, especially for AI processing. However, ternary computers in general will not replace the billions of binary computing devices manufactured every year. See
ternary chip. Contrast with
binary computer.