1940s, most still use the von Neumann architecture. Die  of an  Intel 80486DX2   microprocessor (actual size: 12×6.75 mm) in its packaging. Beginning in the 1950s,  Soviet  scientists  Sergei Sobolev  and  Nikolay Brusentsov  conducted research on  ternary computers , devices that operated on a base three numbering system of −1, 0, and