Comments on: Binary logic https://habitablezone.com/2011/11/02/binary-logic/ Fri, 03 Apr 2026 18:20:54 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Robert https://habitablezone.com/2011/11/02/binary-logic/#comment-8423 Robert Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:47:43 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=5058#comment-8423 No problem. But I've pretty much reached the limit of my knowledge, and ability to puzzle things out from first principles. I haven't designed any digital logic hardware in literally about three decades, so I know little about the current state of the art in logic simulation software. A quick google on "logic simulation software" turned up the usual millions of hits, but the first page had several hits for free software that looked pretty competent. Non-authoritative list: Simulo and LogicCircuit caught my eye as looking fairly easy to use. But I don't have any experience with them, and all marketing material makes the product sound good. Caveat bullshit. A "3 input" IC might be referring to trinary rather than binary logic. The three states could be something like +5V, 0V, and -5V. I don't know of any hardware like that in the real world, and don't know if the software could do it. But you might be able to simulate it with binary using two bits and some gates that turn on in response to three input patterns, say 01, 00, and 10 to represent the three states. Notice that 11 isn't used, making this encoding only 75% efficient. Good luck, and post your results here so we can take a look. No problem. But I’ve pretty much reached the limit of my knowledge, and ability to puzzle things out from first principles.

I haven’t designed any digital logic hardware in literally about three decades, so I know little about the current state of the art in logic simulation software. A quick google on “logic simulation software” turned up the usual millions of hits, but the first page had several hits for free software that looked pretty competent. Non-authoritative list: Simulo and LogicCircuit caught my eye as looking fairly easy to use. But I don’t have any experience with them, and all marketing material makes the product sound good. Caveat bullshit.

A “3 input” IC might be referring to trinary rather than binary logic. The three states could be something like +5V, 0V, and -5V. I don’t know of any hardware like that in the real world, and don’t know if the software could do it. But you might be able to simulate it with binary using two bits and some gates that turn on in response to three input patterns, say 01, 00, and 10 to represent the three states. Notice that 11 isn’t used, making this encoding only 75% efficient.

Good luck, and post your results here so we can take a look.

]]> By: johannes https://habitablezone.com/2011/11/02/binary-logic/#comment-8190 johannes Sun, 06 Nov 2011 22:45:09 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=5058#comment-8190 Thank you Robert, I really appreciate that you are taking the time to explain these things to me. On that poorly constructed video, there are two different “truth tables,” and it seems that the first one deals with the “octal logic” representing 3 inputs and 8 outputs, whereas the “bionic logic” is represented with 3 inputs and 16 outputs. In other words, it seems that it is not a simple binary, since the inputs can not be represented with simple binary notation, such as only “1” and ”0”, or alternately “a” and ”b”, but must contain another representation; the letters “a” “b” and “c” are used there, signifying the consecutive order that the inputs are activated and remain active. Entertaining; yes, and I’d like to play around with a “3 input bionic IC” if one was available, but it seems that in the video there are at least 10 IC’s being used to make that gate. Now if I only understood the way to program a computer to do the same function, then I could experiment with some ideas that I have come up with that might make such a function useful. Thank you Robert, I really appreciate that you are taking the time to explain these things to me.
On that poorly constructed video, there are two different “truth tables,” and it seems that the first one deals with the “octal logic” representing 3 inputs and 8 outputs, whereas the “bionic logic” is represented with 3 inputs and 16 outputs. In other words, it seems that it is not a simple binary, since the inputs can not be represented with simple binary notation, such as only “1” and ”0”, or alternately “a” and ”b”, but must contain another representation; the letters “a” “b” and “c” are used there, signifying the consecutive order that the inputs are activated and remain active.
Entertaining; yes, and I’d like to play around with a “3 input bionic IC” if one was available, but it seems that in the video there are at least 10 IC’s being used to make that gate.
Now if I only understood the way to program a computer to do the same function, then I could experiment with some ideas that I have come up with that might make such a function useful.

]]> By: Robert https://habitablezone.com/2011/11/02/binary-logic/#comment-8168 Robert Sat, 05 Nov 2011 20:31:28 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=5058#comment-8168 <p>How?</p> Well, several approaches come to mind. The most direct would be to use an off-the-shelf hardware logic simulator program to input the logic diagrams exactly as shown in the patent application. That would prove out the patent as well as implement it. It's really a trivial <i>class</i> of problem that's been solved many times. There's a hardware implementation on a chip called a "UART" that's been in service almost without modification for almost as long as the patent's been around (kind of the Soyuz of chip designs). A UART is a serial to parallel data converter that has to recoognize and sync up to special bit patterns to know where the data bytes begin and end, which makes it a "state machine" of similar to the one described in the patent. Speak of state machines, that describes pretty well a design I did for eBay for the browser side of their LiveAuctions real time bidding system. I'd get this stream of commands from a server, and the bit pattern of one would determine the interpretation of the next chunk of bits. That's a state machine, a system that moves from node to node in a network of states depending on the transition of input data from one state to another. Or if you really wanted a good quality implementation of the patent's design, you could sit down and brute-force program it in some language like C. There'd be a network of <tt>if</tt> statements using boolean logic AND OR NOT to examine the current state of the incoming bits and decide where to branch when the next bit comes in. It's the kind of system that has a history and a "memory" of it, in that the previous states determine where the system can go in the future. BTW, the term "octal" refers to the base-eight number system, whose three bits range from 000 to 111, that is, integer values from zero to seven. Which makes an octal representation of data inherently do what the patent states is the goal: End up with an integer corresponding to the state of the three input bits. I'm not sure that this isn't a great deal of fuss over almost nothing. Sometimes patents are like that, somebody uses a sledgehammer to smash a flea, and this is beginning to sound like that kind of patent. That is to say, Rube Goldbergish. It may not be practical, but it's entertaining. How?

Well, several approaches come to mind. The most direct would be to use an off-the-shelf hardware logic simulator program to input the logic diagrams exactly as shown in the patent application. That would prove out the patent as well as implement it.

It’s really a trivial class of problem that’s been solved many times. There’s a hardware implementation on a chip called a “UART” that’s been in service almost without modification for almost as long as the patent’s been around (kind of the Soyuz of chip designs). A UART is a serial to parallel data converter that has to recoognize and sync up to special bit patterns to know where the data bytes begin and end, which makes it a “state machine” of similar to the one described in the patent.

Speak of state machines, that describes pretty well a design I did for eBay for the browser side of their LiveAuctions real time bidding system. I’d get this stream of commands from a server, and the bit pattern of one would determine the interpretation of the next chunk of bits. That’s a state machine, a system that moves from node to node in a network of states depending on the transition of input data from one state to another.

Or if you really wanted a good quality implementation of the patent’s design, you could sit down and brute-force program it in some language like C. There’d be a network of if statements using boolean logic AND OR NOT to examine the current state of the incoming bits and decide where to branch when the next bit comes in.

It’s the kind of system that has a history and a “memory” of it, in that the previous states determine where the system can go in the future.

BTW, the term “octal” refers to the base-eight number system, whose three bits range from 000 to 111, that is, integer values from zero to seven. Which makes an octal representation of data inherently do what the patent states is the goal: End up with an integer corresponding to the state of the three input bits. I’m not sure that this isn’t a great deal of fuss over almost nothing. Sometimes patents are like that, somebody uses a sledgehammer to smash a flea, and this is beginning to sound like that kind of patent.

That is to say, Rube Goldbergish. It may not be practical, but it’s entertaining.

]]> By: johannes https://habitablezone.com/2011/11/02/binary-logic/#comment-8152 johannes Fri, 04 Nov 2011 18:38:11 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=5058#comment-8152 As the old saying goes: There’s more than one way to skin a cat. That patent is over 30 years old and like you said, now days there are ways to represent all types of logic. I imagine that functions such as in fuzzy logic, the original binary logic, and the said “bionic logic” is easy to emulate with the new circuits. It’s obvious that I’m not up to speed on these integrated logic systems, although I do understand the fundamental binary gates, and the “bionic” gate seems like an extension to the regular logic gates, except that it works on the consecutive activation of the inputs. In other words, it is serial format like you say, but it also has the AND operation included in it, making it sort of parallel and serial operation at the same time. How would one program a octal logic system to function in a similar way to the “bionic logic?” As the old saying goes: There’s more than one way to skin a cat. That patent is over 30 years old and like you said, now days there are ways to represent all types of logic. I imagine that functions such as in fuzzy logic, the original binary logic, and the said “bionic logic” is easy to emulate with the new circuits. It’s obvious that I’m not up to speed on these integrated logic systems, although I do understand the fundamental binary gates, and the “bionic” gate seems like an extension to the regular logic gates, except that it works on the consecutive activation of the inputs. In other words, it is serial format like you say, but it also has the AND operation included in it, making it sort of parallel and serial operation at the same time.
How would one program a octal logic system to function in a similar way to the “bionic logic?”

]]> By: Robert https://habitablezone.com/2011/11/02/binary-logic/#comment-8131 Robert Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:17:47 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=5058#comment-8131 <p>Octal logic</p> Looks to me like a clever invention in 1975 that would have no purpose today. The patent app states that the rationale for the special circuits it describes is that to get the desired effect with conventional binary logic would be "difficult or even economically if not technically infeasible to build such processor (sic)." Doesn't that statement just reek of shortsightedness and hubris? In fact with large scale integration, not to mention programmable general-purpose processors that can simulate "bionic logic" quite handily, programmers do "bionic logic" thousands of times a day and don't even notice. Because all it really consists of (if I understand the patent app, admittedly a risky proposition) is receiving a serial stream of three bits and assembling them into a three-bit binary word which, according the laws of God and Man, will inherently have an integer value of between zero and seven. 000 through 111. That's all "bionic logic" really is, as far as I can tell. You get an integer output whose value depends on the order and value of incoming bits. That's binary data, bunkie. What can you do with it, Johannes? Well, actually, quite a lot, considering that it's a real thing that's quite mundane yet highly useful in the real world. Just not under the brand name "Bionic Logic®". Octal logic

Looks to me like a clever invention in 1975 that would have no purpose today. The patent app states that the rationale for the special circuits it describes is that to get the desired effect with conventional binary logic would be “difficult or even economically if not technically infeasible to build such processor (sic).”

Doesn’t that statement just reek of shortsightedness and hubris? In fact with large scale integration, not to mention programmable general-purpose processors that can simulate “bionic logic” quite handily, programmers do “bionic logic” thousands of times a day and don’t even notice. Because all it really consists of (if I understand the patent app, admittedly a risky proposition) is receiving a serial stream of three bits and assembling them into a three-bit binary word which, according the laws of God and Man, will inherently have an integer value of between zero and seven. 000 through 111.

That’s all “bionic logic” really is, as far as I can tell. You get an integer output whose value depends on the order and value of incoming bits. That’s binary data, bunkie.

What can you do with it, Johannes? Well, actually, quite a lot, considering that it’s a real thing that’s quite mundane yet highly useful in the real world. Just not under the brand name “Bionic Logic®”.

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