Suppose 8 tri-state pins are used to control 56 LEDs through Charlieplexing, which is enough for 8 7-segment displays (without decimal points). Typically 7-segment displays are made to have a common cathode, sometimes a common anode, but without loss of generality suppose it is a common cathode. All LEDs in all 8 7-segment displays cannot be turned on simultaneously in any desired combination using Charlieplexing. It is impossible to get 56 bits of information directly from 8 trits (the term for a base-3 character, as the pins are 3-state) of information, as 8 trits fundamentally comprises 8 log23, or about 12.7 bits of information, which falls far short of the 56 bits required to turn all 56 LEDs on or off in any arbitrary combination. Instead, the human eye must be fooled by use of multiplexing.