In <[email protected]>, on 09/19/2014
at 08:07 PM, Tom Brennan <[email protected]> said:
>Just wondering what would happen if I had a machine with 16
>discreet states per wire or connection (using different voltage
>levels, colors, frequencies, or whatever). On such a machine
> there would be no binary bits, so the lowest data type might
>really be hex.
As I mentioned, I would expect to see true decimal and hexadecimal
computational[1] components only on mechanical devices, not on
electronic ones, but if you were willing to go to the trouble[2] you
could certainly build electronic 16-state elements.
[1] Not to be confused with data communications using more than two
signal states, e.g., Trellis, QAM.
[2] "although I can't imagine wanting to do so"
--
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz, SysProg and JOAT
ISO position; see <http://patriot.net/~shmuel/resume/brief.html>
We don't care. We don't have to care, we're Congress.
(S877: The Shut up and Eat Your spam act of 2003)
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