1.3 Data Representation
1.3.1 Binary Numbers
As mentioned earlier, a CPU understands only binary numbers, whose digits consist of either 0 or 1. All data is stored in a computer’s memory as binary digits. A bit holds one binary digit. A byte holds eight binary digits.
Binary numbers are expressed in the base 2 system, because there are only 2 values in that system, 0 and 1. By contrast, most people are used to the decimal, or base 10, system, which uses the values 0 through 9.
There are other number systems, such as the octal, or base 8, system, which uses the digits from 0 to 7, and the hexadecimal, or base 16, system, which uses the digits 0 to 9 and the letters A to F.
As we know it in the decimal system, the number 359 is composed of ...
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