comp1003Week2

Acts as a temporary storage for all program instructions and data

To access an instruction or data, we use a memory address.

A memory address simply identifies a location in memory

• Computers store data in binary. 
• This means that every piece of data and instruction is fundamentally the same.

• It also means that, for humans, it is very difficult for us to understand – theoretically though we could program a computer using binary – it would just take a very long time.
• Solution: Use another base and convert as necessary

Digits are from 0 to 9

• -Binary system is base-2
• -Digits are from 0 and 1
• -Binary system is used in computers to store data (a digit or BIT is on or off).
• -BIT = Binary Digit

if we have 8 bits, we can have 256 combinations (28 = 256, which is also the corresponding value in binary 1 0000 0000)

We should also note convention

- The highest binary value is called the Most Significant Bit (MSB).

- The lowest binary value is called the Least Significant Bit (LSB)

- The meaning depends on how many bits are being used

- Whether the MSB is on the left or the right depends on the system, so it’s not straight forward

We can also convert a binary value using this rule, we simply add up all the values corresponding

Example, if we had the binary value 1010101010, we can determine the decimal value

- 512 + 128 + 32 + 8 + 2 = 682