bits - La Salle University
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Transcript bits - La Salle University
A bit about the computer
Bits, bytes, memory and so on
Some of this material can be found in
Discovering Computers 2000 (Shelly,
Cashman and Vermaat) 3.11-3.13 and the
appendix A.1-A.4.
A computer is
a person or thing that computes
to compute is to determine by arithmetic
means (The Randomhouse Dictionary)
so computing involves numbers
While typing papers, drawing pictures
and surfing the Net don’t seem to involve
numbers at first, numbers are lurking
beneath the surface
Representing numbers
Some attribute of the computer is used to
“represent” numbers (for example: a
child’s fingers)
two kinds of representation are:
– analog the numbers represented take on a
continuous set of values
– digital the numbers represented take on a
discrete set of values
Pros and Cons
the analog representation is fuller/richer
after all there are an infinite number of
values available
the digital representation is safer from
corruption by “noise;” there is a big
difference between the various discrete
values, and smaller, more subtle
differences do not affect the
representation
Our computers are
digital and electronic
(note that digital electronic)
they are electronic because they use an
electronic means (e.g. voltage or current)
to represent numbers
they are digital because the numbers
represented are discrete
Binary representation
the easiest distinction to make is between
– low and high voltage
– off and on
then we can only represent two
digits: 0 and 1
but we can represent any (whole) number
using 0’s and 1’s
Decimal vs. Binary
Decimal (base 10)
– 124 = 100 + 20 + 4
– 124 = 1 102 + 2 101 + 4 100
Binary (base 2)
– 1111100 = 64 + 32 + 16 + 8 + 4 + 0 + 0
– 1111100 = 1 26 + 1 25 + 1 24 + 1 23
+ 1 22 + 0 21 + 0 20
Bits and Bytes
A bit is a single binary digit (0 or 1).
A byte is a group of eight bits.
A byte can be in 256 (28) distinct states
(which we might choose to represent the
numbers 0 through 255).
Note computer scientists like to start
counting with zero.
Realizing a bit
We need two “states,” e.g.
– high or low voltage (e.g. computer chips)
• why you should protect computer from power surges
– north or south pole of a magnet (e.g. floppy
disks)
• why you should keep floppies away from large magnets
– light or dark (e.g. CD)
– hole or no hole (e.g. punch card or CD)
Representing characters
Combinations of 0’s and 1’s
be used to represent
can
characters
This is most commonly done using ASCII
code
American Standard Code for
Information Interchange
ASCII code (a byte per character)
0 00110000
8 00111000
G 01000111
1 00110001
9 00111001
H 01001000
2 00110010
A 01000001
I 01001001
3 00110011
B 01000010
J 01001010
4 00110100
C 01000011
K 01001011
5 00110101
D 01000100
L 01001100
6 00110110
E 01000101
M 01001101
7 00110111
F 01000110
N 01001110
More, more, more
A kilobyte is 1,024 (210) bytes
– approx. one thousand
A megabyte is 1,048,576 (220) bytes
– approx. one million
A gigabyte is 1,073,741,824 (230) bytes
– approx. one billion
A terabyte is 1,099,511,627,776 (240) bytes
– approx. one trillion
Storing it away
A standard 3.5 inch floppy disk holds
1.44 MB (megabytes)
An Iomega Zip disk holds approx. 100
MB
– (the computers in Olney 200 have zip drives)
A CD holds approx. 600 MB
A typical hard drive holds a few GB
(gigabytes)
Storing the Starr report
The report plus supporting material
If there were:
– 60 characters per line
– 66 lines per page (single spaced)
– 500 pages in a ream of paper
– 10 reams in a box
– and 18 boxes
The Grand Total
N = 60 66 500 10 18
N = 356,400,000
N 340 MB (megabytes)
The Starr report and the accompanying
materials would fit on a few zip disks or
one writable CD.
True or False
A boolean expression is a condition that is
either true or false (on or off)
Logical operators:
– like an arithmetic operator (e.g. addition)
that takes in two numbers (operands) and
yields a number as a result (1+1=2)
– Logical operators take in two boolean
expressions and produces a boolean outcome
AND
use to narrow searches
Bit 1
Bit 2
(Bit 1 AND Bit 2)
0 (false)
0 (false)
0 (false)
0 (false)
1 (true)
0 (false)
1 (true)
0 (false)
0 (false)
1 (true)
1 (true)
1 (true)
Example of “AND”
“Mark McGwire” AND supplement
McGwire’s use of Androstenedione
OR
use to widen searches
Bit 1
Bit 2
(Bit 1 OR Bit 2)
0 (false)
0 (false)
0 (false)
0 (false)
1 (true)
1 (true)
1 (true)
0 (false)
1 (true)
1 (true)
1 (true)
1 (true)
Example of “OR”
“Mark McGwire” OR “Sammy Sosa”
Either McGwire or Sosa or both
Transistors
When bits are represented using voltage,
the logical operators (gates) can be
constructed from transistors
The Pentium ® II has approximately 7.5
million transistors on it
The transistors have lengths
approximately 0.35 microns (millionths of
a meter)
Extra slides
The following slides are on converting
numbers from decimal to binary
Don’t panic. I never ask this on tests.
I just like to expose people to it.
Decimal Binary
Take the decimal number 76
Look for the largest power of 2 that is less
than 76.
The powers of 2 are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64,
128, 256, etc.
So the largest power of 2 less than 76 is
64=26.
Decimal Binary
(76 1001100)
Put a 1 on the 26’s place, and subtract 64
from 76 leaving 12.
2
6
2
5
2
4
2
3
2
2
2
1
2
0
1
Ask if the next lower power of 2, 32=25 is
greater than or less than or equal to what
we have left (12).
Decimal Binary (76 1001100)
32 is greater than 12 so we put a 0 in the
25’s place.
6
2
1
0
2
5
2
4
2
3
2
2
2
1
2
0
16 is greater than 12 so we put a 0 in the
24’s place.
Decimal Binary (76 1001100)
6
2
5
2
1
0
0
2
4
2
3
2
2
2
1
2
0
8 is less than 12, so we put a 1 in the 23’s
place, and subtract 8 from 12 leaving 4.
6
2
5
2
4
2
1
0
0
1
2
3
2
2
2
1
2
0
Decimal Binary (76 1001100)
4 is equal to 4, so we put a 1 in the 22’s
place, and subtract 4 from 4 leaving 0.
6
2
5
2
4
2
3
2
1
0
0
1
1
2
2
2
1
2
0
2 is greater than 0 so we put a 0 in the
21’s place.
Decimal Binary (76 1001100)
6
2
5
2
4
2
3
2
2
2
1
0
0
1
1
0
2
1
2
0
1 is greater than 0 so we put a 0 in the
20’s place.
6
2
5
2
4
2
3
2
2
2
1
2
1
0
0
1
1
0
0
2
0