Chapter 2

Bits, Data Types,

and Operations
How do we represent data in a computer?
At the lowest level, a computer is an electronic machine.
• works by controlling the flow of electrons

Easy to recognize two conditions:

1. presence of a voltage – we’ll call this state “1”
2. absence of a voltage – we’ll call this state “0”

Could base state on value of voltage,

but control and detection circuits more complex.
• compare turning on a light switch to
measuring or regulating voltage

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Computer is a binary digital system.
Digital system: Binary (base two) system:
• finite number of symbols • has two states: 0 and 1

Basic unit of information is the binary digit, or bit.

Values with more than two states require multiple bits.
• A collection of two bits has four possible states:
00, 01, 10, 11
• A collection of three bits has eight possible states:
000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110, 111
• A collection of n bits has 2n possible states.
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What kinds of data do we need to represent?

• Numbers – signed, unsigned, integers, floating point,

complex, rational, irrational, …
• Text – characters, strings, …
• Images – pixels, colors, shapes, …
• Sound
• Logical – true, false
• Instructions
• …

Data type:
• representation and operations within the computer
We’ll start with numbers…

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Unsigned Integers
Non-positional notation
• could represent a number (“5”) with a string of ones (“11111”)
• problems?

Weighted positional notation

• like decimal numbers: “329”
• “3” is worth 300, because of its position, while “9” is only worth 9

most least
329 significant
101 significant

102 101 100 22 21 20

3x100 + 2x10 + 9x1 = 329 1x4 + 0x2 + 1x1 = 5

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Unsigned Integers (cont.)
An n-bit unsigned integer represents 2n values:
from 0 to 2n-1.
22 21 20
0 0 0 0
0 0 1 1
0 1 0 2
0 1 1 3
1 0 0 4
1 0 1 5
1 1 0 6
1 1 1 7

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Unsigned Binary Arithmetic
Base-2 addition – just like base-10!
• add from right to left, propagating carry

carry

10010 10010 1111

+ 1001 + 1011 + 1
11011 11101 10000

10111
+ 111

Subtraction, multiplication, division,…

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Signed Integers
With n bits, we have 2n distinct values.
• assign about half to positive integers (1 through 2n-1)
and about half to negative (- 2n-1 through -1)
• that leaves two values: one for 0, and one extra
Positive integers
• just like unsigned – zero in most significant (MS) bit
00101 = 5
Negative integers
• sign-magnitude – set MS bit to show negative,
other bits are the same as unsigned
10101 = -5
• one’s complement – flip every bit to represent negative
11010 = -5
• in either case, MS bit indicates sign: 0=positive, 1=negative

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Two’s Complement
Problems with sign-magnitude and 1’s complement
• two representations of zero (+0 and –0)
• arithmetic circuits are complex
 How to add two sign-magnitude numbers?
– e.g., try 2 + (-3)
 How to add to one’s complement numbers?
– e.g., try 4 + (-3)
Two’s complement representation developed to make
circuits easy for arithmetic.
• for each positive number (X), assign value to its negative (-X),
such that X + (-X) = 0 with “normal” addition, ignoring carry out

00101 (5) 01001 (9)

+ 11011 (-5) + (-9)
00000 (0) 00000 (0)
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Two’s Complement Representation
If number is positive or zero,
• normal binary representation, zeroes in upper bit(s)
If number is negative,
• start with positive number
• flip every bit (i.e., take the one’s complement)
• then add one

00101 (5) 01001 (9)

11010 (1’s comp) (1’s comp)
+ 1 + 1
11011 (-5) (-9)

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Two’s Complement Shortcut
To take the two’s complement of a number:
• copy bits from right to left until (and including) the first “1”
• flip remaining bits to the left

011010000 011010000
100101111 (1’s comp) (flip) (copy)
+ 1
100110000 100110000

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Two’s Complement Signed Integers
MS bit is sign bit – it has weight –2n-1.
Range of an n-bit number: -2n-1 through 2n-1 – 1.
• The most negative number (-2n-1) has no positive counterpart.

-23 22 21 20 -23 22 21 20
0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 -8
0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 -7
0 0 1 0 2 1 0 1 0 -6
0 0 1 1 3 1 0 1 1 -5
0 1 0 0 4 1 1 0 0 -4
0 1 0 1 5 1 1 0 1 -3
0 1 1 0 6 1 1 1 0 -2
0 1 1 1 7 1 1 1 1 -1
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Converting Binary (2’s C) to Decimal
1. If leading bit is one, take two’s
complement to get a positive number.
2. Add powers of 2 that have “1” in the n 2n
0 1
corresponding bit positions. 1 2
3. If original number was negative, 2 4
add a minus sign. 3 8
4 16
5 32
X = 01101000two 6 64
7 128
= 26+25+23 = 64+32+8 8 256
= 104ten 9 512
10 1024

Assuming 8-bit 2’s complement numbers.

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More Examples

X = 00100111two
= 25+22+21+20 = 32+4+2+1 n 2n
0 1
= 39ten 1 2
2 4

X = 11100110two 3 8
4 16
-X = 00011010 5 32

= 24+23+21 = 16+8+2 6 64
7 128
= 26ten 8 256
9 512
X = -26ten 10 1024

Assuming 8-bit 2’s complement numbers.

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Converting Decimal to Binary (2’s C)
First Method: Division
1. Find magnitude of decimal number. (Always positive.)
2. Divide by two – remainder is least significant bit.
3. Keep dividing by two until answer is zero,
writing remainders from right to left.
4. Append a zero as the MS bit;
if original number was negative, take two’s complement.

X = 104ten 104/2 = 52 r0 bit 0

52/2 = 26 r0 bit 1
26/2 = 13 r0 bit 2
13/2 = 6 r1 bit 3
6/2 = 3 r0 bit 4
3/2 = 1 r1 bit 5
X = 01101000two 1/2 = 0 r1 bit 6
2-15
Converting Decimal to Binary (2’s C) n 2n
Second Method: Subtract Powers of Two 0 1
1 2
1. Find magnitude of decimal number. 2 4
2. Subtract largest power of two 3 8
less than or equal to number. 4 16
5 32
3. Put a one in the corresponding bit position. 6 64
4. Keep subtracting until result is zero. 7 128
8 256
5. Append a zero as MS bit; 9 512
if original was negative, take two’s complement. 10 1024

X = 104ten 104 - 64 = 40 bit 6

40 - 32 = 8 bit 5
8-8 = 0 bit 3
X = 01101000two
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Operations: Arithmetic and Logical
Recall:
a data type includes representation and operations.
We now have a good representation for signed integers,
so let’s look at some arithmetic operations:
• Addition
• Subtraction
• Sign Extension
We’ll also look at overflow conditions for addition.
Multiplication, division, etc., can be built from these
basic operations.
Logical operations are also useful:
• AND
• OR
• NOT

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Addition
As we’ve discussed, 2’s comp. addition is just
binary addition.
• assume all integers have the same number of bits
• ignore carry out
• for now, assume that sum fits in n-bit 2’s comp. representation

01101000 (104) 11110110 (-10)

+ 11110000 (-16) + (-9)
01011000 (98) (-19)

Assuming 8-bit 2’s complement numbers.

2-18
Subtraction
Negate subtrahend (2nd no.) and add.
• assume all integers have the same number of bits
• ignore carry out
• for now, assume that difference fits in n-bit 2’s comp.
representation

01101000 (104) 11110110 (-10)

- 00010000 (16) - (-9)
01101000 (104) 11110110 (-10)
+ 11110000 (-16) + (9)
01011000 (88) (-1)

Assuming 8-bit 2’s complement numbers.

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Sign Extension
To add two numbers, we must represent them
with the same number of bits.
If we just pad with zeroes on the left:
4-bit 8-bit
0100 (4) 00000100 (still 4)
1100 (-4) 00001100 (12, not -4)

Instead, replicate the MS bit -- the sign bit:

4-bit 8-bit
0100 (4) 00000100 (still 4)
1100 (-4) 11111100 (still -4)

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Overflow
If operands are too big, then sum cannot be represented
as an n-bit 2’s comp number.

01000 (8) 11000 (-8)

+ 01001 (9) + 10111 (-9)
10001 (-15) 01111 (+15)
We have overflow if:
• signs of both operands are the same, and
• sign of sum is different.
Another test -- easy for hardware:
• carry into MS bit does not equal carry out

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Logical Operations
Operations on logical TRUE or FALSE
• two states -- takes one bit to represent: TRUE=1, FALSE=0

A B A AND B A B A OR B A NOT A
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0
1 0 0 1 0 1
1 1 1 1 1 1

View n-bit number as a collection of n logical values

• operation applied to each bit independently
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Examples of Logical Operations
AND 11000101
• useful for clearing bits
AND 00001111
 AND with zero = 0
 AND with one = no change 00000101

OR
• useful for setting bits
11000101
 OR with zero = no change OR 00001111
 OR with one = 1 11001111

NOT
• unary operation -- one argument
NOT 11000101
• flips every bit 00111010

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Hexadecimal Notation
It is often convenient to write binary (base-2) numbers
as hexadecimal (base-16) numbers instead.
• fewer digits -- four bits per hex digit
• less error prone -- easy to corrupt long string of 1’s and 0’s

Binary Hex Decimal Binary Hex Decimal

0000 0 0 1000 8 8
0001 1 1 1001 9 9
0010 2 2 1010 A 10
0011 3 3 1011 B 11
0100 4 4 1100 C 12
0101 5 5 1101 D 13
0110 6 6 1110 E 14
0111 7 7 1111 F 15

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Converting from Binary to Hexadecimal
Every four bits is a hex digit.
• start grouping from right-hand side

011101010001111010011010111

3 A 8 F 4 D 7

This is not a new machine representation,

just a convenient way to write the number.

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Fractions: Fixed-Point
How can we represent fractions?
• Use a “binary point” to separate positive
from negative powers of two -- just like “decimal point.”
• 2’s comp addition and subtraction still work.
 if binary points are aligned
2-1 = 0.5
2-2 = 0.25
2-3 = 0.125
00101000.101 (40.625)
+ 11111110.110 (-1.25)
00100111.011 (39.375)
No new operations -- same as integer arithmetic.

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Very Large and Very Small: Floating-Point
Large values: 6.023 x 1023 -- requires 79 bits
Small values: 6.626 x 10-34 -- requires >110 bits

Use equivalent of “scientific notation”: F x 2E

Need to represent F (fraction), E (exponent), and sign.
IEEE 754 Floating-Point Standard (32-bits):
1b 8b 23b

S Exponent Fraction

N  ( 1)S  1.fraction  2exponent127 , 1  exponent  254

N  ( 1)S  0.fraction  2126 , exponent  0
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Floating Point Example
Single-precision IEEE floating point number:
10111111010000000000000000000000

sign exponent fraction

• Sign is 1 – number is negative.

• Exponent field is 01111110 = 126 (decimal).
• Fraction is 0.100000000000… = 0.5 (decimal).

Value = -1.5 x 2(126-127) = -1.5 x 2-1 = -0.75.

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Floating-Point Operations
Will regular 2’s complement arithmetic work for
Floating Point numbers?
(Hint: In decimal, how do we compute 3.07 x 1012 + 9.11 x 108?)

2-29
Text: ASCII Characters
ASCII: Maps 128 characters to 7-bit code.
• both printable and non-printable (ESC, DEL, …) characters

00 nul10 dle20 sp 30 0 40 @ 50 P 60 ` 70 p
01 soh11 dc121 ! 31 1 41 A 51 Q 61 a 71 q
02 stx12 dc222 " 32 2 42 B 52 R 62 b 72 r
03 etx13 dc323 # 33 3 43 C 53 S 63 c 73 s
04 eot14 dc424 $ 34 4 44 D 54 T 64 d 74 t
05 enq15 nak25 % 35 5 45 E 55 U 65 e 75 u
06 ack16 syn26 & 36 6 46 F 56 V 66 f 76 v
07 bel17 etb27 ' 37 7 47 G 57 W 67 g 77 w
08 bs 18 can28 ( 38 8 48 H 58 X 68 h 78 x
09 ht 19 em 29 ) 39 9 49 I 59 Y 69 i 79 y
0a nl 1a sub2a * 3a : 4a J 5a Z 6a j 7a z
0b vt 1b esc2b + 3b ; 4b K 5b [ 6b k 7b {
0c np 1c fs 2c , 3c < 4c L 5c \ 6c l 7c |
0d cr 1d gs 2d - 3d = 4d M 5d ] 6d m 7d }
0e so 1e rs 2e . 3e > 4e N 5e ^ 6e n 7e ~
0f si 1f us 2f / 3f ? 4f O 5f _ 6f o 7f del
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Interesting Properties of ASCII Code
What is relationship between a decimal digit ('0', '1', …)
and its ASCII code?

What is the difference between an upper-case letter

('A', 'B', …) and its lower-case equivalent ('a', 'b', …)?

Given two ASCII characters, how do we tell which comes

first in alphabetical order?

Are 128 characters enough?

(http://www.unicode.org/)

No new operations -- integer arithmetic and

logic.
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Other Data Types
Text strings
• sequence of characters, terminated with NULL (0)
• typically, no hardware support
Image
• array of pixels
 monochrome: one bit (1/0 = black/white)
 color: red, green, blue (RGB) components (e.g., 8 bits each)
 other properties: transparency
• hardware support:
 typically none, in general-purpose processors
 MMX -- multiple 8-bit operations on 32-bit word
Sound
• sequence of fixed-point numbers

2-32
LC-3 Data Types
Some data types are supported directly by the
instruction set architecture.

For LC-3, there is only one hardware-supported data type:

• 16-bit 2’s complement signed integer
• Operations: ADD, AND, NOT

Other data types are supported by interpreting

16-bit values as logical, text, fixed-point, etc.,
in the software that we write.

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