Chapter 2 - Data Representation

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts related to data representation in computer systems.

Bit

The most basic unit of information in a computer, representing a state of either 'on' or 'off', or '1' or '0'.

Byte

A group of 8 bits, the smallest possible unit of storage in computer systems.

Nibble

A group of 4 bits; a byte consists of 2 nibbles.

Most Significant Bit (MSB)

The leftmost bit in a binary number, representing the highest value.

Least Significant Bit (LSB)

The rightmost bit in a binary number, representing the lowest value.

Binary System

Base-2 numbering system where each digit represents a power of 2.

Decimal System

Base-10 numbering system where each digit represents a power of 10.

Radix

The base of a number system, for example, in binary it is 2, in decimal it is 10.

Two's Complement

A method for representing signed integers in binary.

Overflow

An error that occurs when a calculation exceeds the maximum limit of the numeric representation.

Truncation

The process of shortening a decimal by eliminating bits where they exceed the required capacity.

Floating Point Representation

A method for representing real numbers that can accommodate a wide range of values.

ASCII

American Standard Code for Information Interchange; a character encoding standard.

Unicode

A computing industry standard for encoding, representing, and handling text in most of the world's writing systems.

Hexadecimal

Base-16 numbering system using digits 0-9 and letters A-F.

Character Encoding

The process of converting characters into a format that can be stored and processed.

Exponent Field

Part of a floating point representation that determines the range of values.

Significand

Also known as mantissa, it represents the significant digits of a floating-point number.

Normalization

The process of adjusting the significand of a floating-point number to have a leading 1.

Biased Exponent

A method of representing exponents in floating-point representation that allows for both positive and negative values.