NativeTernary: A Self-Delimiting Binary Encoding with Unary Run-Length Hierarchy Markers for Ternary Neural Network Weights, Structured Data, and General Computing Infrastructure

Abstract

BitNet b1.58 (Ma et al., 2024) demonstrates that large language models can operate entirely on ternary weights {-1, 0, +1}, yet no native binary wire format exists for such models. NativeTernary closes this gap. Benchmarked against GGUF on the real BitNet b1.58 2B4T architecture (24 layers, ~170 tensors, 2B parameters): NativeTernary encodes ternary weights at exactly 2.000 bits per weight -- 1.31x smaller than GGUF Q2_K and 4.0x smaller than GGUF int8 -- while reducing boundary and framing overhead by 460x (91 bytes vs ~42KB of GGUF tensor headers). Encode throughput: 47--69 MB/s. Decode throughput: 35--45 MB/s on commodity hardware. The decoder is a 10-line stateless state machine resilient to bitstream corruption.