It's not a binary choice. Independent boffin builds a ternary CPU on an FPGA

The 5500FP is a ternary CPU implemented on an FPGA. It's not very fast, but it makes it easier to experiment with computers that don't use binary. Independent researcher Claudio Lorenzo La Rosa ...
Hackaday

Ternary RISC Processor Achieves Non-Binary Computing Via FPGA

You would be very hard pressed to find any sort of CPU or microcontroller in a commercial product that uses anything but binary to do its work. And yet, other options exist! Ternary computing ...
Hackaday

Relays Run This Balanced Ternary Adder

If you’re at all familiar with digital computing, you’ll know that computers represent everything in binary values of one and ...
ExtremeTech

Samsung-Backed Researchers Debut Ternary Semiconductor Design

One of the first things we learn about computers is that they perform operations using binary code to represent values. It's a fundamental trait of computing -- but it's not a requirement. It's ...