1.

1 Data Representation Notes

Candidates should be able to:

 Show understanding of binary magnitudes  Understand difference between and use:
and difference between binary prefixes and • kibi and kilo • mebi and mega
decimal prefixes. • gibi and giga • tebi and tera
 Use binary, denary, hexadecimal number
 Show understanding of the basis of different bases and BCD and one’s and two’s
number systems. complement representation for binary
 Perform binary addition and subtraction numbers
Using positive & negative binary integers  Convert an integer value from one number
 Describe practical applications where BCD base /representation to another.
and Hexadecimal are used  Show understanding of how overflow can
 Show understanding of and be able to occur
represent character data in its internal binary  Familiar with ASCII, extended ASCII and
form, depending on the character set used Unicode.

Number System
“Number system is a way of representing amounts or quantity of something”
Types of Number System

Decimal Number System

Number system that we use in our day-to-day life is
decimal (denary) number system. It has base 10 as it uses 10 digits from 0 to 9.
In decimal number system, successive positions to the left of decimal point represent
units, tens, hundreds, thousands and so on. Each position represents a specific power
of the base (10).
For example,

Binary Number System

Binary number system builds numbers from elements called
bits. Each bit can be represented by any two mutually exclusive states 1 and 0. Base of
binary number system is 2.In binary system we have a one's column, a two's columns,
a four's column, an eight's column, and so on, as illustrated below.

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Denary to Binary Conversion:

To convert denary number to binary number, repeatedly divide quotient by the base 2,
until the quotient is one, making note of the remainders at each step. Then, write
remainders in reverse, starting at the bottom and appending to the right each time.
Example: Find Binary equivalent of decimal number 203.

Reading remainder from bottom to Top and appending to right each time gives
(11001011)2 . This is binary equivalent of (203)10.
Binary to Denary System:
Convert following binary number, 0011000111100110, into a denary number.

To convert this number to denary, each time a 1 appears in a column, column value is
added to total: 8192 + 4096 + 256 + 128 + 64 + 32 + 4 + 2 = 12 774
Hexadecimal Number System

Hexadecimal Number System consists of 16 digits from 0 to 9

and A to F. Alphabets A to F represent decimal numbers from
10 to 15 i.e (A = 10, F = 15.)
Base of this number system is 16. Each digit position in
hexadecimal system represents a power of 16.

Nibble: Term given to a group of four bits.

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Conversion of Hexadecimal to Binary Number

Conversion from binary to Hexadecimal System

To convert from binary to hexadecimal, start from right and moving left, split binary
number into groups of 4 bits.
If last group has less than 4 bits, then simply fill in with 0s from left. Take each group of
4 bits and convert it into equivalent hexadecimal digit.

Conversion Hexadecimal to Denary Number

To convert hexadecimal number to denary, take each hexadecimal digit and multiply it
by its value. Add the totals together to obtain the denary value.

Note: A binary number is odd if its right most digit is one.

Conversion from Denary to Hex

To convert from denary to hexadecimal involve repetitive division by 16. The
remainders are then read from BOTTOM to TOP to give the hexadecimal value.

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 1.1 Data Representation Notes

Everything you see on a computer, images, sounds, games, text, videos, etc. Whatever it
is, it will be stored as a string of ones and zeroes.

Internal Coding of Integer

Coding used in a computer system is based on bits being grouped together with eight
bits representing a byte. Right-hand bit is referred to as the least significant bit and
the left-hand bit as the most significant or top bit.
Bits in a byte are numbered right to left starting at bit 0 and ending at bit 7.

Coding Unsigned Integer:

Unsigned integer can be stored as binary number. Only
decision to be made is how many bytes should be used. If choice is to use two bytes
(16 bits) then range of values that can be represented is 0 to 216 - 1 which is 0 to
65535.
Coding Signed Integer:
To represent signed integer we use following method.
Sign and Magnitude
In this method, bit at the far left of the bit pattern (sign bit) - indicates whether
number is positive or negative. Rest of bits in pattern store magnitude of the number.

Negative numbers are represented using sign and magnitude or two's complement.

Smallest possible number using sign and magnitude method representation is -127 (or
11111111) and the largest possible number is +127 (or 01111111).

Disadvantage: Sign and magnitude approach is ineffective due to requirement to

compare sign and magnitude before performing addition or subtraction, leading to

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 1.1 Data Representation Notes

slow execution of these operations.

Two's complement Representation
Two's complement method is a binary representation technique used in computing for
the representation of signed integers.
Advantage of Two Complement Number:
 One advantage of two's complement method is that addition and subtraction of
signed numbers become simplified.
 Arithmetic operations can be performed using same hardware for both positive and
negative numbers, making it an efficient representation in computer architecture.

One's complement:
It is defined as the binary number obtained if each binary digit is
individually subtracted from 1 which, in practice, means that each 0 is switched to 1
and each 1 switched to 0.

Example: Find 1’s complement of binary number 10001001.

Invert each bit of binary number, so 1’s complement of given number will be 01110110.
 Uses of 1’s Complement Binary Numbers:
1’s complement is mainly use in signed Binary number representation and arithmetic
operations for Binary numbers, e.g., additions, subtractions, etc
 Two's complement:
Two's complement is defined as binary number obtained if 1 is
added to one's complement number.
Alternative Method of two complement:
Start from least significant bit and move left ignoring any zeros up to first 1 which
is also ignored. Any remaining bits are then changed from 0 to 1 or from 1 to 0.
Example,
Expressing number 10100100 in two's complement form, leaves right hand 100
unchanged then the remaining 10100 changes to 01011 so the result is 01011100.
 Representing Positive denary as equivalent two’s complement form:
❖ Convert the denary value to a binary value.
❖ Add a 0 in front of this binary value.
 Representing Negative denary as equivalent two’s complement form:
i. Find positive binary value for negative number.
ii. Add a 0 to front of the number, to indicate that it is positive.
iii. Then find two complement.
Represent - 4 in two's complement form
1. 4 = 100
2. Adding 0 to the front becomes 0100
3. Find two complement of 0100 i.e 1100 (-8 + 4 = -4)

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 1.1 Data Representation Notes

 Converting two’s complement binary representing Positive value into denary:

Leading zero is ignored and then convert the remaining binary into denary number.

 Converting two’s complement binary number representing a negative

number into a denary value
Example
Converting negative number expressed in two's complement form to denary number.
Consider the two's complement binary number 10110001.
Solution:
Sum the individual position values but treat the most significant bit as a negative value
From the original binary number 10110001 this produces the following:
-128 + 0 + 32 + 16 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 = - 79.
Differences between sign magnitude representation and two's complement form.

Points to note about two’s Complement

 There is only one representation of zero.

 Starting from lowest negative value, each successive higher value is obtained
by adding 1 to the binary code. In particular, when all digits are 1 the next step
is to roll over to an all-zero code..
Example: Adding 1 to negative value of (-7) you will get value of 6 and so on.
 Just adding a leading zero to an unsigned binary value converts it to two’s
complement representation of corresponding positive number.
 You use a two’s complement conversion to change sign of a number from
positive to negative or from negative to positive. We say that the two’s

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complement values are self-complementary.

 We can add any number of leading zeros to representation of Positive value
without changing value.
 We can add any number of leading ones to representation of Negative value
without changing value.

Lowest and highest integer values that is possible to represent in two’s complement
using a 8 bit is -128 and +127 respectively.

Binary Arithmetic
 Binary Addition:
For binary addition, starting at the least significant position applies.
Rules for the addition of binary digits are:
 0+0=0
 0+1=1
 1 + 1 = 0 with a carry of 1
 1 + 1 + 0 = 0 with a carry of 1
 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 with a carry of 1
Example: Add 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 (37 in denary) and 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 (58 in denary)

 Binary Subtraction:
Starting at the least significant position applies. Rules for subtraction of
binary digits are:
 0– 0 = 0
 0 – 1 = 1 after a borrow
 1– 0 = 1
 1– 1 = 0
Example:
Subtraction of binary equivalent of denary 11 from binary equivalent of denary 14
can be done as.

Steps followed from right to left are:

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 1.1 Data Representation Notes

❖ 1 is larger than 0 so 1 is borrowed giving subtraction of 1 from 10 leaving 1

❖ Because of borrow the 1 is reduced to 0 so that 1 is to be subtracted from 0.
This requires a further borrow giving subtraction of 1 from 10 leaving 1
❖ Because of the borrow the 1 is reduced to 0 leaving subtraction of 0 from 0
❖ 1– 1 gives 0 Answer is the binary value for denary 3.
Binary Subtraction Alternative Method:
To carry out subtraction in binary, we convert the number
being subtracted into its negative equivalent using two’s complement, and then add
the two numbers.
 Example: Carry out the subtraction 95 – 68 in binary.
Step 1: Convert the two numbers into binary:
95 = 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1
68 = 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 2
Step 2: Find the two’s complement of 68:

Step 3: Add 95 and −68:

Additional ninth bit is simply ignored leaving binary number 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 (denary

equivalent of 27, which is correct result of subtraction).
Over Flow
A CPU with a capacity of 8 bits has a capacity of up to 11111111 in binary. If one more
bit was added there would be an overflow error.

Example: 8-bit Overflow

8-bit overflow occurs in the binary sum 11111111 + 1 (denary: 255 + 1).

Total is number bigger than 8 digits, and when this happens CPU drops overflow
digit because the computer cannot store it anywhere, and computer thinks 255 + 1 = 0.

Most CPUs use much bigger word size than 8 bits. Many PC have 64-bit CPU. 64-bit CPU can
handle number larger than 18 quintillion (18,446,744,073,709,551,615 to be precise).

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 1.1 Data Representation Notes

Binary Coded Decimal

BCD is an encoding for decimal numbers in which each digit is represented by its own
binary sequence. In BCD we can use the binary number from 0000-1001 only, which
are the decimal equivalent from 0-9 respectively. Example

Suppose if a number have single decimal digit then it’s equivalent BCD will be the
respective four binary digits of that decimal number.

Note: If a denary number with more than one digit is to be converted to BCD, there are
two options for BCD;
Method # 1:
We store one BCD code in one byte leaving four bits unused.
Example: BCD representations of the denary digits 8503:

Method # 2:
In this method, we packed BCD where two 4-bit codes are stored in one byte.
Example:
BCD representations of the denary digits 8503:

BCD Application and Justification: 9618/12/O/N/23

 Application that performs financial or banking calculations because it is difficult to
represent decimal values exactly in normal binary and financial transactions use only
two decimal places and must be accurate, no accumulating errors.
 Electronic displays, e.g. calculators, digital clocks because visual displays only need to
show individual digits and because conversion between denary and BCD is easier
 Storage of date and time in BIOS of a PC because conversion with denary is easier.
BCD Addition
To perform addition in BCD, you can first add-up in binary format, and then perform
conversion to BCD afterwards. This conversion involves adding 6 to each group of four
digits that has a value of greater-than 9. For example:

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 1.1 Data Representation Notes

9 + 5 = 14 in denary.
[1001] + [0101] = [1110] in binary.

However, in BCD, we cannot have value greater-than 9 (1001) per-nibble. To correct

this, add 6 ( 0110) to that answer:

[0000 1110] + [0000 0110] = [0001 0100]

which gives us two nibbles, [0001] and [0100] which correspond to "1" and "4"
respectively. This gives us the 14 in BCD which is the correct result.

Correction factor.
To counteract this in BCD arithmetic, processor recognize that an impossible
value has been produced and apply a method to remedy this. Remedy is to add 0110
whenever problem is detected.

For 0 to 9 decimal numbers both binary and BCD is equal but when decimal
number is more than one digit, BCD differs from binary.

Internal coding of text

ASCII Code:
ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information
Interchange. They are used to encode alphanumeric data in computers and electronic
devices to represent input and output in a more scientific manner.
ASCII represent 27 = 128 codes as it is a seven bit code.
Extended ASCII-8:
Latest development in field of ASCII code is development of 8 bit code which is known
as ASCII-8. As it is an 8 bit code it can represent 28 = 256 characters.
Character Set: A defined list of characters recognized by the computer hardware and
software. Each character is represented by a number and take one byte. ASCII
character set uses the numbers 0 through 127 to represent all English characters as
well as special control characters.
• The ASCII code for “A” and “a” in denary number System: A = 65 • a = 97

Unicode and ASCII both are standards for encoding texts.

Boolean value is stored in a computer in the form 0 or 1 OR a byte of all 0 or a byte

of all 1. Computer don’t accept Yes or No.

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 1.1 Data Representation Notes

 Sixth bit changes from 1 to 0 when comparing lower and uppercase characters. This makes
conversion between the two an easy operation.
 Character sets (such as a to z, 0 to 9, and so on) are grouped together in sequence, which
speeds up usability.

Unicode
Unicode allows characters in a code form to represent all languages of
world, thus supporting many operating systems, search engines and internet browsers
used globally.
Unicode overlap with standard ASCII code, since the first 128 (English) characters are
the same. Unicode can support 65,536 different characters in total as it take two bytes

to store each character.

Code Point:
Unicode has its own special terminology and symbolism. For example, a
character code is referred to as a 'code point'.
Code point is identified by U+ followed by a 4-digit hexadecimal number.
Example: U+0041 which is code point corresponding to alphabetic character A. The
0041 are hexadecimal characters representing two bytes.

Note: Code points U+0000 to U+00FF define characters which are a duplicate of those
in standard ASCII.
Important Points about Unicode:
 Unicode create a universal standard that covered all languages and all writing
systems.
 Produce a more efficient coding system than ASCII
 Adopt uniform encoding where each character is encoded as 16-bit or 32-bit
code.
 Create unambiguous encoding where each 16-bit or 32-bit value always
represents same character
 Reserve part of code for private use to enable a user to assign codes for their
own characters and symbols.
Similarity between ASCII and Unicode are; 9618/O/N/22/P11
 Both represent each character using a unique code
 Unicode will contain all characters that ASCII contains // ASCII is a subset of Unicode.

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 1.1 Data Representation Notes

Difference between ASCII and Unicode are; 9618/O/N/22/P11

 Unicode can go up to 32 bits per character whereas ASCII is 7 or 8 bits
 Unicode can represent a wider range of characters than ASCII
 different languages are represented using Unicode, ASCII is only for one language

A problem arises when the computer retrieves a piece of data from its memory.
Imagine that the data is 01000001. Is this the number 65, or is it A?

They are both stored in the same way, so how can it tell the difference?
First 128 characters in Unicode are the ASCII
The answer is codes.
that characters and numbers are stored in different parts of the memory,
so it knows which one it is by knowing where about it was stored.

Decimal Prefix
A prefix to define the magnitude of a value. Examples are kilo( K), mega (M) , giga (G) , tera (T)
and peta (P) representing factors of 103 , 106 , 109 , 1012 and 1015 respectively.

Binary Prefix
A prefix to define the magnitude of a value. Examples are kibi (Ki), mebi (Mi) , gibi (Gi) , tebi (Ti)
and pebi (Pi) representing factors of 210 , 220 , 230 , 240 and 250 respectively.

ESQ: State one difference between a kibibyte and a megabyte 9618/12/O/N/23

 kibibyte is binary prefix and megabyte is denary prefix
 kibibyte = 1,024 bytes // 210 bytes while megabyte = 1000 kilobytes //1 000 000
bytes // 103 kilobytes // 106 bytes
ESQ: Difference and similarity between Kilobyte and Kibibyte:
Difference: Kilobyte is a decimal unit of measurement equal to 1000 bytes. kibibyte is
a binary unit of measurement equal to 1024 bytes.
Similarity: Kilobyte (KB) and kibibyte (KiB) are both units of digital information storage.

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Measurement of the size of Computer Memories

 Convert 34 560 bytes into kibibytes

 Convert 34 56000 bytes into mebibytes:

Example: How many mp3 files of size 2.4 MiB could be stored on a 4 GiB USB?
Solution:

******************
Exam Style Question
Q#1 Find how -28 would be expressed in two's complement notation?

Solution: First we write out 28 in binary form. 00011100

Then we invert the digits. 0 becomes 1, 1 becomes 0. 11100011

Then we add 1. 11100100
That is how one would write -28 in 8 bit binary.

**************

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