Photonic Balanced Ternary Computing: A Perspective on the Post-CMOS Paradigm

Abstract

Binary logic on CMOS emerged from the two-state operating regime of 1940s vacuum tubes — a historical contingency, not a law of physics. This perspective argues that three developments — the quantum transport physics of photonically gated carbon-nanotube devices, balanced ternary arithmetic, and the democratization of GPU-accelerated open-source simulation — together make a post-CMOS ternary paradigm practical. The proposed device family encodes trits (-1, 0, +1) as three symmetric, physics-separated current states, with zero as the true absence of signal rather than a slice of a voltage margin. Three independent simulation methods (NEGF quantum transport, GW-BSE optical response, reactive molecular dynamics of growth) confirm the paradigm end to end. Quantitative device parameters are withheld until the international patent filing phase completes in 2027; the argument is architectural and survives the withholding intact. The full stack — device, logic, processor, memory, security, software, with extensions to 3D arrays, contactless operation, binary interfacing, AI acceleration, GF(3) error correction, and a qutrit path — is filed as twelve Indian patent applications. The software half (ManiT, maniTC, thatteOS) is already released under AGPL-3.0 and runs today on ordinary hardware.