Setun 70 Emulator

A working emulator of the Soviet Setun 70 ternary computer (1970), reconstructed from archival documentation.

What Is This?

The Setun 70 was a balanced ternary computer developed at Moscow State University in 1970. It used:

• Balanced ternary numbers: digits are -1, 0, +1 (not 0, 1 like binary)
• POLIZ execution: Reverse Polish Notation with a two-stack architecture
• Syllable-based programs: 6-trit "trytes" instead of bytes

This emulator reconstructs the architecture from the original 1970 paper by Brusentsov, Zhogolev, and Maslov, recovered from the Russian Virtual Computer Museum and Bitsavers archives.

🌐 Try It Online

Launch Web Emulator →

No installation required. Write POLIZ assembly and watch the ternary stack machine execute.

Installation

From PyPI

pip install setun70

From Source

git clone https://github.com/Zaneham/setun70-emulator.git
cd setun70-emulator
pip install -e .

Quick Start

Run the demos

python setun70.py

Run a program file

python setun70.py examples/hello.s70
python setun70.py examples/factorial.s70 --debug

Use as a library

from setun70 import Setun70, Setun70Assembler

source = """
    LIT 10      ; Push 10
    LIT 20      ; Push 20
    ADD         ; Add them
    OUT         ; Output result
    HALT        ; Stop
"""

asm = Setun70Assembler()
program = asm.assemble(source)

vm = Setun70()
vm.load_program(program)
vm.run()
# Output: OUT: 30 (ternary: 001010)

Demo Output

+==================================================================+
|                     SETUN 70 EMULATOR                            |
|         Soviet Ternary Computer (1970) - Reconstructed           |
+==================================================================+

DEMO: Balanced Ternary Arithmetic
 -13 -> 000TTT -> -13
  -5 -> 000T11 -> -5
   0 -> 000000 -> 0
  13 -> 000111 -> 13
 224 -> 10T10T -> 224

DEMO: Arithmetic (3 + 4) x 5 = 35
OUT: 35 (ternary: 00110T)

DEMO: Factorial 5! = 120
OUT: 120 (ternary: 011110)

Why Balanced Ternary?

Feature	Binary	Balanced Ternary
Digits	0, 1	-1, 0, +1
Negation	Complex (two's complement)	Just flip all digits!
Rounding	Biased	Perfect (truncation = rounding)
Signed/unsigned	Two representations	One representation
Efficiency	Baseline	5.4% better

Decimal 13:
  Binary:           001101 (6 bits)
  Balanced Ternary: 000111 (6 trits, ~9.5 bits equivalent)
  Negated:          000TTT = -13 (just flip!)

Assembly Language

Instructions

Mnemonic	Stack Effect	Description
LIT n	-- n	Push literal value
ADD	a b -- a+b	Add
SUB	a b -- a-b	Subtract
MUL	a b -- a*b	Multiply
DIV	a b -- a/b	Divide
DUP	a -- a a	Duplicate
DROP	a --	Remove top
SWAP	a b -- b a	Exchange
NEG	a -- -a	Negate
OUT	a --	Print value
HALT	--	Stop execution

Example Program

; quadratic.s70 - Calculate x^2 + 2x + 1 where x = 5

    LIT 5       ; x = 5
    DUP         ; x x
    MUL         ; x^2 = 25
    
    LIT 5       ; x
    LIT 2       ; 2
    MUL         ; 2x = 10
    
    ADD         ; 25 + 10 = 35
    LIT 1       ; 1
    ADD         ; 35 + 1 = 36
    
    OUT         ; Output: 36
    HALT

Architecture

Memory Model

• 27 pages (3^3) of 81 syllables (3^4) each
• 3 page registers for bank switching
• Total: 2,187 syllables (~20KB equivalent)

Syllable Format (6 trits)

Operation: [0 0 | type | opcode (3 trits)]
Address:   [length | page_reg | offset (4 trits)]

Historical Context

The Setun 70 was developed at Moscow State University's Computing Center. Key facts:

• 1958: Original Setun built - world's only production ternary computer
• 1965: Production cancelled despite demand ("an ugly duckling")
• 1970: Setun 70 designed - research into optimal architectures
• 1970: Charles Moore independently creates Forth (similar stack model)
• 1995: Sun creates JVM (similar stack bytecode)
• 2025: This emulator reconstructed from archived papers

The DSSP (Dialogue System of Structured Programming) continues to emulate Setun 70 on binary computers to this day because the architecture's programming advantages remain compelling.

Project Structure

setun70-emulator/
├── setun70.py          # Python emulator (~600 lines)
├── setun70_spec.md     # Formal specification
├── README.md           # This file
├── LICENSE             # MIT License
├── pyproject.toml      # Python package config
├── web/
│   └── index.html      # Browser-based emulator (self-contained)
└── examples/
    ├── hello.s70       # Simple arithmetic
    ├── factorial.s70   # 5! = 120
    └── quadratic.s70   # Polynomial evaluation

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Ideas:

• Add more instructions (comparisons, jumps)
• Implement the return stack for procedures
• Port programs from the 1968 Soviet program catalog
• Create a web-based emulator ✓ Done!

Deploying to GitHub Pages

To enable the web emulator at https://YOUR_USERNAME.github.io/setun70-emulator/web/:

1. Go to your repo → Settings → Pages
2. Under "Source", select Deploy from a branch
3. Select main branch and / (root) folder
4. Click Save

The web emulator will be live within a few minutes.

References

1. Brusentsov, N.P., Zhogolev, E.A., Maslov, S.P. "General Characteristics of the Small Digital Machine 'Setun 70'" (1970)
2. Russian Virtual Computer Museum: http://computer-museum.ru/english/setun.htm
3. Bitsavers Soviet computing archive: http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ussr/

License

MIT License - see LICENSE

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Part of The Ian Index - Reconstructing Lost Computing Architectures

Go find it for goodness sake.