OMNIBASE LOGIC'S - MVL: Technical Information




Multiple-Valued Logic (MVL) is the ability of a circuit or system to perform math or logic operations in a radix above 2 (binary). Omnibase's technology easily enables integrated circuits to operate in ternary (base 3) or tetranary (base 4) and can be extended beyond.



MVL solves the limiting problems of today’s IC technology: current leakage, heat dissipation, and error rates associated with packing more transistors into less silicon.





Multiple-Valued Logic: Do the Math


Base10 is famously well suited to those of us who count on fingers.

Base2 is great for circuits that can only assume two states (1,0 or TRUE, FALSE).



There is a significant and, in some applications insurmountable, advantage to increasing the radix which governs the mathematical operations of a system.


Let's convert the decimal number 3876 to different radices:


   Base     Number

2   111100100100

3   12022120

4   330210

5   1110011

6   25540

7   14205

8   7444

9   5276

10   3876

16   F24



To represent 3876 in a circuit, it would take 12 binary data lines; one per digit. This requirement drops to 8 in the ternary system, 6 in tetranary, 4 lines in octal through the decimal 3876. Even in the hexadecimal system (base 16), it would still take three data lines.




As can be seen from this example, an enormous efficiency is gained by going from binary to ternary and tetranary, but the advantage begins to decline exponentially. A more detailed treatment of this can be seen in "Third Base." The plot to the left is from the analysis in "Third Base" which shows the relative efficiency of implementations of a math processor system for different radices. Curiously, the optimal operating point seems to be the napierian base.


An alternative view of this advantage can be seen by investigating the time that it would take to discover an encryption code if it is assumed that all possible combinations must be checked. A plot of this is shown here:




As can be seen in this plot, a 32-bit encryption that can be broken in 2.2 minutes with a 100 MIPS processor in binary would take 643 days in ternary or 175 centuries in tetranary. The mathematical advantage of operating an encryption code in ternary or tetranary is insurmountable.


In applications which are heavily dominated by mathematical operations, the marketplace edge of a system running in ternary over a functionally-equivalent binary system is a competitive advantage that simply cannot be overcome.