Ternary computation is an alternative computing framework with applications in machine learning, experimental processors and scientific computing. As these systems develop, there is a need for efficient, well-documented, practical implementations.

RVXtv acts as an ISA for communication between a purpose-built ternary system and a binary computer. Rather than using traditional software emulation, RVXtv is meant to allow for hardware-accelerated ternary computation, while still being compatible with existing traditional binary systems.

RVXtv is not an extension that is designed to be ratified as an official RISC-V standard.

Optimally, in the future, a ternary-native RISC ISA designed to be run on physical ternary hardware would be developed in the future. Until such systems become practical, RVXtv acts as a way to perform efficient ternary computation on existing binary hardware.