Re: Digital vs. Binary Computers

From: Nathan C. Baker (nbaker2328_at_charter.net)
Date: 04/21/04 

Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 00:49:51 -0400

"Randall Hyde" <randyhyde@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:5Xkhc.2923$eZ5.1436@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...
>
> "Beth" <BethStone21@hotmail.NOSPICEDHAM.com> wrote in message
> news:122hc.1$tB3.0@newsfe1-gui.server.ntli.net...
>
> >
> > But, yes, the "di" in "digital" appears NOT to be anything to do with
> > "two" whatsoever (if it ever did - rather than it just being a
> > "concidence of letters" to a common prefix - then it's long lost that
> > particular meaning a while ago ;)...although, you can perfectly
> > understand the logic because "di-" and "bi-" prefixing words _does_,
> > in the main, usually mean "two" something or another...
>
> "digital" comes from "digits" as in fingers and toes, as you pointed
> out. The term implies base-10, as the natural numbering system
> that humans adopted way back when.
>

To me, "digital" doesn't imply base-10, it merely implies the use of
ordinals to represent logical states.
In fact, the most historically successful digital systems are founded on
base-12 counting -- 12 astrological signs, 12 suits in a deck of cards
(actually decended from astrology's tarot cards), the 12 months in a year,
and the 12 divisions of the face of a clock. [there are probably many that
I am missing, but I'm sure Beth can fill in these]

> Originally, there were digital computers (that worked in decimal)

Here, you are obviously refering to the ancient Chinese _abacus_ which is a
decimal digital computer by all rights. And, until we invented the
electronic calculator, we relied on log tables and the slide rule to quickly
multiply and divide large numbers. The slide rule is definately a decimal
digital computer as much as the abacus is. But, if you find yourself in the
middle of a forest sans slide rule and sans abacus and you need to do some
advanced math, simply chop down a tree and build a log table. ;-)

> and there were binary computers. Over the years, the meanings got
> kind of merged.
>
> I haven't followed this thread, because quite frankly it isn't very
> interesting, but someone has pointed out that flash memory is
> base-4, right? It stores four voltage levels in each cell so you
> get two bits' worth of data in each cell.

But since "bits" are "BInary digiTs", you are still dealling with binary
logic. Also, this is storage only -- not computation.
I hope you at least read my explanation in the posting:

"Evenbit" <nbaker2328@charter.net> wrote in message
news:ecdc73cc.0404180510.5cd9f03b@posting.google.com...

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