I got the following question: A trinary computer uses trits instead of bits (a trit can have values 0, 1 or 2). A trinary computer has a 9-trit floating-point representation of a number. Trit 8, the MST (Most Significant Trit), is the sign trit (1 is positive, 2 negative). Trits 7–5 contain the exponent, with bias 13 (i.e., subtract 13 from the value to get the actual exponent). Trits 4–0 contain the significand
i. What is the minimal value that can be represented in this way? ii. What is the minimal positive value that can be represented?
I didn't quite know how to answer those 2 question. In i. I thought to start the num with a negative bit 2 and then to continue with the highest number I can find = 222..2 and for ii. I would change the MSB to 1 and the exp. to be 0 and the rest could be the lowest num I could find = 10..001 but the right answers are:
i. -(2*3^13 + 2*3^12 +..+ 2*3^9) - why the LSB starts with multiplying it with 3^9 and not 3^0? ii. 3^(-17)
Can you please lead me to my mistake and explain me how to solve it correctly? thanks :)
