Digital Systems: Information Coding 1

Flashcards for reviewing information coding concepts in digital systems.

Why is information coding necessary in computer systems?

To ensure computer hardware remains simple and focuses on handling small, positive whole numbers efficiently.

What is ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)?

A widely-used code for characters, defining 128 symbols using a 7-bit binary code.

What is decimal (base-10) essentially composed of?

Columns of powers-of-10 (10x).

When multiplying by 10, what action occurs?

Shifting left by one decimal place.

How do you multiply or divide by radix n?

Shift n places, where n is positive for multiplication (left shift) and negative for division (right shift).

What is arithmetic overflow?

An error that occurs when the result of an arithmetic operation is too large to be stored within a fixed number of digits.

What are two drawbacks of the 'sign and magnitude' approach for representing negative numbers?

Sacrificing a column for the sign indicator and having two representations of zero.

What is the 'excess n' approach for representing negative numbers?

Coding a number by adding an excess value (n) to it, ensuring negative values are coded as positive.

In the 'excess n' method, how are negative values coded as positive?

By adding the excess, which effectively shifts the range of representable numbers.

How are fractions represented in fixed-point notation?

Reserve some columns for the fractional part.

What approach trades precision for range when representing numbers?

Floating point representation.

What is the basic idea behind floating point representation?

Representing the mantissa and exponent as separate fixed-point numbers.

What type of numbers do computers fundamentally deal with?

Positive whole numbers.

What does floating point coding do?

Removes range limitations but at the expense of precision.