2.
0 DATA REPRESENTATION AND NUMBERING SYSTEMS
Most modern computer systems do not represent numeric values using the decimal system.
Instead, they use a binary or two’s complement numbering system. To understand the limitations
of computer arithmetic, one must understand how computers represent numbers.
2.1 THE BINARY NUMBERING SYSTEM
Most modern computer systems (including the IBM PC) operate using binary logic. The
computer represents values using two voltage levels (usually 0v and +5v). With two such levels
we can represent exactly two different values. These could be any two different values, but by
convention we use the values zero(0) and one(1). These two values, coincidentally, correspond to
the two digits used by the binary numbering system. Since there is a correspondence between the
logic levels used by the 80x86 and the two digits used in the binary numbering system, it comes
as no surprise that the IBM PC employs the binary numbering system.
The binary numbering system works just like the decimal numbering system, with two
exceptions: binary only allows the digits 0 and 1 (rather than 0-9), and binary uses powers of two
rather than powers of ten. Therefore, it is very easy to convert a binary number to decimal. For
each "1" in the binary string, add in 2**n where "n" is the zero-based position of the binary digit.
For example, the binary value 11001010 represents:
1*2**7 + 1*2**6 + 0*2**5 + 0*2**4 + 1*2**3 + 0*2**2 + 1*2**1 + 0*2**0
=128 + 64 + 8 + 2
=202 (base 10)
To convert a decimal to binary is slightly more difficult. You must find those powers of two which,
when added together, produce the decimal result. The easiest method is to work from the large
power of two down to 2**0. Consider the decimal value 1359:
• 2**10=1024, 2**11=2048. So 1024 is the largest power of two less than 1359. Subtract 1024
from 1359 and begin the binary value on the left with a "1" digit. Binary = "1", Decimal result is
1359 - 1024 = 335.
• The next lower power of two (2**9= 512) is greater than the result from above, so add a "0" to
the end of the binary string. Binary = "10", Decimal result is still 335.
• The next lower power of two is 256 (2**8). Subtract this from 335 and add a "1" digit to the end
of the binary number. Binary = "101", Decimal result is 79.
• 128 (2**7) is greater than 79, so tack a "0" to the end of the binary string. Binary = "1010",
Decimal result remains 79.
• The next lower power of two (2**6 = 64) is less than 79, so subtract 64 and append a "1" to the
end of the binary string. Binary = "10101", Decimal result is 15.
• 15 is less than the next power of two (2**5 = 32) so simply add a "0" to the end of the binary
string. Binary = "101010", Decimal result is still 15.
• 16 (2**4) is greater than the remainder so far, so append a "0" to the end of the binary string.
Binary = "1010100", Decimal result is 15.
• 2**3(eight) is less than 15, so stick another "1" digit on the end of the binary string. Binary =
"10101001", Decimal result is 7.
• 2**2 is less than seven, so subtract four from seven and append another one to the binary string.
Binary = "101010011", decimal result is 3.
• 2**1 is less than three, so append a one to the end of the binary string and subtract two from the
decimal value. Binary = "1010100111", Decimal result is now 1.
• Finally, the decimal result is one, which is2**0, so add a final "1" to the end of the binary string.
The final binary result is "10101001111"
Binary numbers, although they have little importance in high level languages, appear everywhere
in assembly language programs
2.2 THE OCTAL NUMBERING SYSTEM
Octal numbers are numbers to base 8. The primary advantage of the octal number system is the
ease with which conversion can be made between binary and decimal numbers. Octal is often used
as shorthand for binary numbers because of its easy conversion. The octal numbering system is
shown below;
2.3 THE DECIMAL NUMBERING SYSTEM
The decimal (base 10) numbering system has been used for so long that people take it for granted.
When you see a number like “123”, you don’t think about the value 123, rather, you generate a
mental image of how many items this value represents in reality, however, the number 123
represents”
1*10**2 + 2*10**1 + 3*10**0 or 100+20+3
Each digit appearing to the left of the decimal point represents a value between zero and nine times
an increasing power of ten. Digits appearing to the right of the decimal point represent a value
between zero and nine times an increasing negative power of ten.
e.g. 123.456 means
1*10**2 + 2*10**1 + 3*10**0 + 4*10**-1 + 5*10**-2 +6*10**-3
or 100 + 20 +3 +0.4 + 0.05 +0.006
2.4 THE HEXADECIMAL NUMBERING SYSTEM
A big problem with the binary system is verbosity. To represent the value 202 (decimal) requires
eight binary digits. The decimal version requires only three decimal digits and, thus, represents
numbers much more compactly than does the binary numbering system. This fact was not lost on
the engineers who designed binary computer systems. When dealing with large values, binary
numbers quickly become too unwieldy. Unfortunately, the computer thinks in binary, so most of
the time it is convenient to use the binary numbering system. Although we can convert between
decimal and binary, the conversion is not a trivial task. The hexadecimal (base 16) numbering
system solves these problems. Hexadecimal numbers offer the two features we're looking for:
they're very compact, and it's simple to convert them to binary and vice versa. Because of this,
most binary computer systems today use the hexadecimal numbering system. Since the radix
(base) of a hexadecimal number is 16, each hexadecimal digit to the left of the hexadecimal point
represents some value times a successive power of 16. For example, the number 1234
(hexadecimal) is equal to:
1 * 16**3 + 2 * 16**2 + 3 * 16**1 + 4 * 16**0
or 4096 + 512 + 48 + 4 = 4660 (decimal).
Each hexadecimal digit can represent one of sixteen values between 0 and 15. Since there are only
ten decimal digits, we need to invent six additional digits to represent the values in the range 10
through 15. Rather than create new symbols for these digits, we'll use the letters A through F. The
following are all examples of valid hexadecimal numbers:
1234 DEAD BEEF 0AFB FEED DEAF
Since we'll often need to enter hexadecimal numbers into the computer system, we'll need a
different mechanism for representing hexadecimal numbers. After all, on most computer systems
you cannot enter a subscript to denote the radix of the associated value. We'll adopt the following
conventions:
• All numeric values (regardless of their radix) begin with a decimal digit.
• All hexadecimal values end with the letter "h", e.g., 123A4h.
• All binary values end with the letter "b".
• Decimal numbers may have a "t" or "d" suffix.
Examples of valid hexadecimal numbers:
1234h 0DEADh 0BEEFh 0AFBh 0FEEDh 0DEAFh
As you can see, hexadecimal numbers are compact and easy to read. In addition, you can easily
convert between hexadecimal and binary. Consider the following table:
This table provides all the information you'll ever need to convert any hexadecimal number into a
binary number or vice versa.
To convert a hexadecimal number into a binary number, simply substitute the corresponding four
bits for each hexadecimal digit in the number. For example, to convert 0ABCDh into a binary
value, simply convert each hexadecimal digit according to the table above:
0 A B C D Hexadecimal
0000 1010 1011 1100 1101 Binary
To convert a binary number into hexadecimal format is almost as easy. The first step is to pad the
binary number with zeros to make sure that there is a multiple of four bits in the number. For
example, given the binary number 1011001010, the first step would be to add two bits to the left
of the number so that it contains 12 bits. The converted binary value is 001011001010. The next
step is to separate the binary value into groups of four bits, e.g., 0010 1100 1010. Finally, look up
these binary values in the table above and substitute the appropriate hexadecimal digits, e.g., 2CA.
Contrast this with the difficulty of conversion between decimal and binary or decimal and
hexadecimal!
Since converting between hexadecimal and binary is an operation you will need to perform over
and over again, you should take a few minutes and memorize the table above. Even if you have a
calculator that will do the conversion for you, you'll find manual conversion to be a lot faster and
more convenient when converting between binary and hex.
A comparison of the aforementioned numbering systems is shown below;
3.0 TYPES OF ENCODING
When numbers, letters and words are represented by a special group of symbols, this is called
“Encoding” and the group of symbols encoded is called a “code”. Any decimal number can be
represented by an equivalent binary number. When a decimal number is represented by its
equivalent binary number, it is called “straight binary coding”.
There are three methods of encoding and they are;
• American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII)
• Binary Coded Decimal (BCD)
• Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC)
3.1 ASCII CODING SYSTEM
In addition to numeric data, a computer must be able to handle non-numeric information. In other
words, a computer should recognize codes that represent letters of the alphabet, punctuation marks,
other special characters as well as numbers. These codes are called alphanumeric codes. The most
widely used alphanumeric code is ASCII code (American Standard Code for Information
Interchange). ASCII is used in most microcomputers and mini computers and in many mainframes.
The ASCII code is a seven-bit code, thus it has 27=128 possible code groups. In the 7-bit code, the
first 3 bits represent the zone bits and the last 4 bits represent the numeric bits.
Despite some major shortcomings, ASCII data is the standard for data interchange across computer
systems and programs. Most programs can accept ASCII data; likewise, most programs can
produce ASCII data. Since you will be dealing with ASCII characters in assembly language, it
would be wise to study the layout of the character set and memorize a few key ASCII codes (e.g.,
"0", "A", "a", etc.).
The table below shows some commonly used ASCII codes
A summary of the ASCII table is shown below;
Examples:
1. Represent Bez in binary format Numeric bits
Since Bez contains an alphabet, the ASCII representation is suitable for this conversion
B- 100 0010
e- 110 0101
z- 111 1010
Answer: 100001011001011111010
2. Convert 1001000 1000101 1001100 1010000 to ASCII
1001000- H
1000101- E
1001100- L
1010000- P
Answer: HELP
3. Using ASCII representation, convert UNIVERSITY to binary
U- 1010101, N- 1001110, I- 1001001, V- 1000110, E- 1000101, R- 1010010, S- 1010011, I-
1001001, T-1010100, Y- 1011001
ANSWER: 10101011001110100100110001101000101101001010100111001001
3.2 BINARY CODED DECIMAL
If each digit of a decimal number is represented by binary equivalence, this produces a code called
Binary Coded Decimal. Since a decimal digit can be as large as 9, 4 bits are required to code each
digit in the decimal number. E.g.
87410 = 1000011101002
94310 = 1001010000112
Only the four bits binary numbers from 0000 through 1001 are used for binary coded decimal. The
BCD code does not use the numbers 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. In other words, 10 of the 16 possible 4
bits binary codes are used. If any of the forbidden 4 bits number ever occurs in a machine using
the BCD, it is usually an indication that an error has occurred.
Comparison of BCD and Binary
It is important to realize that BCD is not another number system like binary, octal, hexadecimal
and decimal. It is in fact the decimal system with each digit encoded in its binary equivalence. It
is also important to understand that a BCD number is not the same as binary number.
A straight binary code takes the complete decimal number and represents it in binary while the
BCD code converts each decimal digit to binary individually.
e.g.
13710 to straight binary coding is 10001001
13710 to BCD is 000100110111
The main advantage of BCD is the relative ease of converting to and from decimal. This ease of
conversion is especially important from a hardware standpoint because in a digital system, it is the
logic circuit that performs conversion to and from decimal.
BCD is used in digital machines whenever decimal information is either applied as input or
displayed as output. e.g. digital voltmeter, frequency counters make use of BCD. Electronic
calculators also make use of BCD because the input numbers are entered in decimal through the
keyboard and the output is displayed in decimal.
BCD is not often used in modern high speed digital system for good 2 good reasons;
1. As it was already pointed out, the BCD code for a given decimal number requires more bits that
the straight binary code and it is therefore less efficient. This is important in digital computers
because the number of places in memory where the bits can be stored is limited.
2. The arithmetic processes for numbers represented in BCD code are more complicated than
straight binary and thus requires more complex circuitry which contributes to a decrease in the
speed at which arithmetic operations take place.
3.3 EBCDIC CODING SYSTEM EBCDIC
is an acronym for Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code. IBM developed this code
for use on its computers. In EBCDIC, eight bits are used to represent each character i.e 256
characters can be represented. IBM minicomputers and mainframe computers use the EBCDIC.
The eight bits can as well be divided into two. The zonebits and the numeric bits each is represented
by 4bits.
Example:
Convert HELP to binary using EBCDIC coding system.
Solution:
H- 11001000, E- 11000101, L- 11010011, P- 11010111
Answer 11001000110001011101001111010111
