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• Word integers that is. - Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 13 2013 @ 12:19 PM EDT

The whole operation of a digital computer is based on its manipulation of sets of binary numbers ...

Decimal artihmetic is implemented on many computers that are largely binary in nature. For example, IBM mainframes have always been able to perform decimal arithmetic, and now Decimal Floating-Point is available. Decimal arithmetic is very useful for real-world computing. There is no precise way to express the result of dividing 1 by ten in binary, just as there is no precise way of expressing the result of dividing 1 by three in decimal.

There has also been some work done with ternary logic and ternary computers. The Setun, for example was implemented using ternary logic.

Don't get hung up on binary.

Tom Marchant

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