Number System

Number system is the way to represent everything in the form of digits.

There are four types of number system.

1. Binary Number System

Binary number system can contain two digits 0 and 1. So base of binary

number system is 2. Binary numbers are represented with 2 as subscript

to the value.

Examples of binary numbers are:

1. (1101) 2
2. (1110.011) 2
2. Decimal Number System

Decimal number system can contain digits from 0 to 9. So base of

decimal number system is 10. Decimal numbers are represented with 10

as subscript to the value.

Examples of decimal numbers are:

1. (1234) 10
2. (55.34) 10
3. Octal Number System

Octal number system can contain digits from 0 to 7. So base of octal

number system is 8. Octal numbers are represented with 8 as subscript to

the value.
 Examples of octal numbers are:

1. (561) 8
2. (17.54) 8
4. Hexadecimal Number System

Hexadecimal number system can contain digits from 0 to 9 and alphabets

from A to F where

A=10

B=11

C=12

D=13

E=14

F=15

So base of hexadecimal number system is 16. Hexadecimal numbers are

represented with 16 as subscript to the value.

Examples of hexadecimal numbers are:

1. (A74) 16
2. (91.B3) 16
Number System Conversions
1. Decimal to Binary Conversion
To obtain binary equivalent of a decimal number, decimal number should

be repeatedly divided by 2 writing remainder obtained at every step.

This should continue until last quotient is 1. The remainders should be

written bottom to upwards to get binary equivalent of decimal number.

1. (17) 10  = (?) 2  = (10001) 2

2. Decimal to octal  Conversion

To obtain octal equivalent of a decimal number, decimal number should

be repeatedly divided by 8 writing remainder obtained at every step.

This should continue until last quotient  is less than 8. The remainders

should be written bottom to upwards to get octal equivalent of decimal

number.
 3 .  Decimal to hexadecimal  Conversion

To obtain hexadecimal equivalent of a decimal number, decimal number

should be repeatedly divided by  16 writing remainder obtained at every

step.

This should continue until last quotient  is less than 16. The remainders

should be written bottom to upwards to get hexadecimal equivalent of

decimal number.
4. Binary to  Decimal  Conversion

To obtain decimal equivalent of a binary number, individual digits of

binary number should be multiplied by powers of 2 starting with

rightmost digit multiplied by 2 0 , second last digit multiplied by 2 1 , third

last digit multiplied by 2 2  and so on upto the leftmost digit.

Example:

                                              

   
5. Octal to Decimal Conversion

To obtain decimal equivalent of an octal number, individual digits of

octal number should be multiplied by powers of 8 starting with rightmost

digit multiplied by 8 0 , second last digit multiplied by 8 1 , third last digit

multiplied by 8 2  and so on upto the leftmost digit.

Example:

**Arrows represent values to be

multiplied.                                                     

6.  Hexadecimal to Decimal Conversion

To obtain decimal equivalent of a hexadecimal number, individual digits

of hexadecimal number should be multiplied by powers of 16 starting

with rightmost digit multiplied by 16 0 , second last digit multiplied by

16 1 , third last digit multiplied by 16 2  and so on upto the leftmost digit.

In case of alphabets A to F, codes of alphabets should be multiplied by

power of 16.

Example:

**Arrows represent values to be multiplied.                                                      

7. Octal to Binary Conversion

To obtain binary equivalent of an octal number, individual digits of octal

number should be converted to binary in groups of three digits.

For example, to get binary equivalent of octal number  127 we can take

following steps:

Binary equivalent of 7 is 111

Binary equivalent of 2 is 010

Binary equivalent of 1 is 001

So Binary equivalent of (127) 8  is:

8. Hexadecimal to Binary Conversion

To obtain binary equivalent of a hexadecimal number, individual digits

of hexadecimal number should be converted to binary in groups of four

digits.

For example, to get binary equivalent of hexadecimal number A27 we can

take following steps:

Binary equivalent of 7  is 0111

Binary equivalent of 2 is 0010

Binary equivalent of A(10) is 1010

So Binary equivalent of (A27) 16  is:

9. Binary to octal Conversion

To obtain octal equivalent of a binary number, digits of binary number

should be divided into groups of three digits starting from the right most

digit. Then these groups should be converted into corresponding decimal

numbers.

For example, to get octal equivalent of binary number 101011 we can

take following steps:

101011 is divided into groups of three digits as:

(101)(011)

Decimal equivalent of 011 is 3

Decimal equivalent of 101 is 5

Octal equivalent of 101011 2  is:

 10. Binary to Hexadecimal Conversion

To obtain hexadecimal equivalent of a binary number, digits of binary

number should be divided into groups of four digits starting from the

rightmost digit. Then these groups should be converted into

corresponding decimal numbers.

1011101011 is divided into groups of four digits as:

(0010)(1110)(1011)  

Note: zeros are filled at the beginning of left most group of binary digits

if there are lesser number of digits than four.

Decimal equivalent of 1011 is 11 (B)

Decimal equivalent of 1110 is 14 (E)

Decimal equivalent of 0010 is 2

Hexadecimal equivalent of 1011101011 2  is:

Binary Addition
Binary numbers can be added just like normal numbers but in case of

binary numbers sum is always 0 or 1. Rules of adding binary numbers

are:

1. 0+0=0
2. 0+1=1
3. 1+0=1
4. 1+1=0 with carry 1
Example 1:

Sum in above example is performed by following steps:

1 + 1 = 10 = 0 with carry 1.

1+0+1 = 10 = 0 with carry 1

1+1+0 = 10 = 10 = 0 with carry 1

1+1+1= 10+1 = 11= 1 with carry 1

1 +1 +1 = 11

Example 2:

Decimal Number System

Decimal number system is a base 10 number system having 10 digits from 0 to 9. This
means that any numerical quantity can be represented using these 10 digits. Decimal
number system is also a positional value system. This means that the value of digits
will depend on its position. Let us take an example to understand this.
Say we have three numbers – 734, 971 and 207. The value of 7 in all three numbers is
different−

 In 734, value of 7 is 7 hundreds or 700 or 7 × 100 or 7 × 10 2

 In 971, value of 7 is 7 tens or 70 or 7 × 10 or 7 × 10 1
 In 207, value 0f 7 is 7 units or 7 or 7 × 1 or 7 × 10 0
The weightage of each position can be represented as follows −

In digital systems, instructions are given through electric signals; variation is done by
varying the voltage of the signal. Having 10 different voltages to implement decimal
number system in digital equipment is difficult. So, many number systems that are
easier to implement digitally have been developed. Let’s look at them in detail.

Binary Number System

The easiest way to vary instructions through electric signals is two-state system – on
and off. On is represented as 1 and off as 0, though 0 is not actually no signal but signal
at a lower voltage. The number system having just these two digits – 0 and 1 – is
called binary number system.
Each binary digit is also called a bit. Binary number system is also positional value
system, where each digit has a value expressed in powers of 2, as displayed here.

In any binary number, the rightmost digit is called least significant bit (LSB) and
leftmost digit is called most significant bit (MSB).

And decimal equivalent of this number is sum of product of each digit with its positional
value.
110102 = 1×24 + 1×23 + 0×22 + 1×21 + 0×20
= 16 + 8 + 0 + 2 + 0
= 2610
Computer memory is measured in terms of how many bits it can store. Here is a chart
for memory capacity conversion.

 1 byte (B) = 8 bits

 1 Kilobytes (KB) = 1024 bytes
 1 Megabyte (MB) = 1024 KB
 1 Gigabyte (GB) = 1024 MB
 1 Terabyte (TB) = 1024 GB
 1 Exabyte (EB) = 1024 PB
 1 Zettabyte = 1024 EB
 1 Yottabyte (YB) = 1024 ZB

Octal Number System

Octal number system has eight digits – 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. Octal number system
is also a positional value system with where each digit has its value expressed in
powers of 8, as shown here −

Decimal equivalent of any octal number is sum of product of each digit with its positional
value.
7268 = 7×82 + 2×81 + 6×80
= 448 + 16 + 6
= 47010

Hexadecimal Number System

Octal number system has 16 symbols – 0 to 9 and A to F where A is equal to 10, B is
equal to 11 and so on till F. Hexadecimal number system is also a positional value
system with where each digit has its value expressed in powers of 16, as shown here −

Decimal equivalent of any hexadecimal number is sum of product of each digit with its
positional value.
27FB16 = 2×163 + 7×162 + 15×161 + 10×160
= 8192 + 1792 + 240 +10
= 1023410

Number System Relationship

The following table depicts the relationship between decimal, binary, octal and
hexadecimal number systems.

HEXADECIMAL DECIMAL OCTAL BINARY

0 0 0 0000

1 1 1 0001

2 2 2 0010

3 3 3 0011

4 4 4 0100

5 5 5 0101

6 6 6 0110

7 7 7 0111

8 8 10 1000

9 9 11 1001

A 10 12 1010

B 11 13 1011

C 12 14 1100

D 13 15 1101

E 14 16 1110

F 15 17 1111

ASCII
Besides numerical data, computer must be able to handle alphabets, punctuation
marks, mathematical operators, special symbols, etc. that form the complete character
set of English language. The complete set of characters or symbols are called
alphanumeric codes. The complete alphanumeric code typically includes −

 26 upper case letters

 26 lower case letters
 10 digits
 7 punctuation marks
 20 to 40 special characters
Now a computer understands only numeric values, whatever the number system used.
So all characters must have a numeric equivalent called the alphanumeric code. The
most widely used alphanumeric code is American Standard Code for Information
Interchange (ASCII). ASCII is a 7-bit code that has 128 (27) possible codes.
ISCII
ISCII stands for Indian Script Code for Information Interchange. IISCII was
developed to support Indian languages on computer. Language supported by IISCI
include Devanagari, Tamil, Bangla, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Tamil, Telugu, etc. IISCI is
mostly used by government departments and before it could catch on, a new universal
encoding standard called Unicode was introduced.

Unicode
Unicode is an international coding system designed to be used with different language
scripts. Each character or symbol is assigned a unique numeric value, largely within the
framework of ASCII. Earlier, each script had its own encoding system, which could
conflict with each other.
In contrast, this is what Unicode officially aims to do − Unicode provides a unique
number for every character, no matter what the platform, no matter what the program,
no matter what the language.