We determine the cost of performing Shors algorithm for integer factorization on a ternary quantum computer, using two natural models of universal fault-tolerant computing: (i) a model based on magic state distillation that assumes the availability of the ternary Clifford gates, projective measurements, classical control as its natural instrumentation set; (ii) a model based on a metaplectic topological quantum computer (MTQC). A natural choice to implement Shors algorithm on a ternary quantum computer is to translate the entire arithmetic into a ternary form. However, it is also possible to emulate the standard binary version of the algorithm by encoding each qubit in a three-level system. We compare the two approaches and analyze the complexity of implementing Shors period finding function in the two models. We also highlight the fact that the cost of achieving universality through magic states in MTQC architecture is asymptotically lower than in generic ternary case.
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