Close

Ternary computer program emulator

A project log for Homebrew ternary computer

TRIADOR: The only ternary computer made for real in the past 50 years.

dmitry-v-sokolovDmitry V. Sokolov 04/04/2020 at 13:060 Comments

To ease the debugging phase, here is an emulator for the ternary programs:

https://github.com/ssloy/triador

A very simple sample program that computes R2+R3 and stores the results back in R3:

R1 NNN # N.B. the memory is not guaranteed to be initialized
RR NNN # initialize R13 with -13, this chooses segment NNN for jumps
R2 ONP # write -2 to R2            ┌─────────────────────────────────┐
R3 PPP # write 13 to R3            │ This program computes R2+R3,    │
RR OPO # copy R3 to R1 <─┐         │ the result is stored in R3.     │
SK NPO # skip if R2!=0   │         │ Here is a C++ world equavalent: │
JP PNO # R2==0, terminate│ ────┐   │                                 │
SK PNP # skip if R2>0    │     │   │      int R2 = -2;               │
RR OON # R1--            │     │   │      int R3 = 13;               │
SK PNN # skip if R2<0    │     │   │      while (R2!=0) {            │
RR OOP # R1++            │     │   │          int R1 = R3;           │
RR ONO # copy R1 to R3   │     │   │          if (R2>0) R1++;        │
RR OPN # copy R2 to R1   │     │   │          if (R2<0) R1--;        │
SK PNP # skip if R2>0    │     │   │          R3 = R1;               │
RR OOP # R1++            │     │   │          R1 = R2;               │
SK PNN # skip if R2<0    │     │   │          if (R2>0) R1--;        │
RR OON # R1--            │     │   │          if (R2<0) R1++;        │
RR ONP # copy R1 to R2   │     │   │          R2 = R1;               │
JP NOO # jump here ──────┘     │   │      }                          │
EX PPP # halt and catch fire <─┘   └─────────────────────────────────┘

Discussions