Lecture 2: Number Systems and Codes

Youssef Jaffal

Phoenicia University
Electrical & Communication Engineering
EENG 212: Digital System Design

References: [Wakerly] Chapter: 2

The figures in this presentation are taken from “Wakerly, Digital Design: Principles and Practices, 4th
edition.”
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Youssef Jaffal Lecture 2: Number Systems and Codes
Introduction

Digital systems are built from circuits that process binary

digits (0s and 1s).

A digital designer must establish a correspondence between

binary digits and real-life numbers, events and conditions.

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Positional Number Systems
A number is represented by a string of digits
Each digit position has an associated weight
The value of a number is a weighted sum of the digits
Ex1: 1734 = 1 × 1000 + 7 × 100 + 3 × 10 + 4 × 1
The weights are power of 10: 1000, 100, 10, 1
Ex2: 85.68 = 8 × 10 + 5 × 1 + 6 × 0.1 + 8 × 0.01
We have positive and negative powers
This system had a base (radix, r) of 10
General form of a number is:

d p−1 d p−2 ...d1 d0 .d−1 d−2 ...d−n

The value of the number is:

p−1
D= ∑ di ri where r≥2
i=−n
d p−1 = Most significant digit and d−n = Least significant digit

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Youssef Jaffal Lecture 2: Number Systems and Codes
Positional Number Systems
Binary: radix = 2
Digital circuits have signals that are normally in one of only
two conditions; low or high, charged or discharged, off or on.
Binary is used to represent numbers in a digital system
Ex: 110.012 = 1 × 4 + 1 × 2 + 0 × 1 + 0 × 0.5 + 1 × 0.25 = 6.2510
In general the value is given by:
p−1
B= ∑ bi 2i
i=−n

Octal and Hexadecimal represent a shorthand notation for the

binary system
Octal (Base 8): {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}
Ex: 5768 = 5 × 82 + 7 × 8 + 6 × 1 = 38210
Hexadecimal (Base 16): {0, ..., 9, A, B, C, D, E, F}
Ex: A2F16 = A × 162 + 2 × 16 + F × 1 =
10 × 162 + 2 × 16 + 15 × 1 = 260710
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General Positional Number System Conversions
To convert a number D to decimal, we convert each digit to
radix-10 equivalent and expand the weighted-sum formula
using radix-10 arithmetic

Ex1: 1CE8.116 =
1 × 163 + 12 × 162 + 14 × 16 + 8 × 1 + 1 × 16−1 = 7400.062510

Ex2: F1AC16 = 12 + 16 × [10 + 16 × (1 + 15 × 16)] = 6186810

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General Positional Number System Conversions

Decimal to Binary: It is done by successive divisions until a

zero quotient is obtained. The remainders taken in reverse
order constitute the binary representation

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Youssef Jaffal Lecture 2: Number Systems and Codes
General Positional Number System Conversions
Decimal fraction to binary: It is done by successive
multiplications taking out each time the integer part of the
result.
Example: convert 0.3125 to binary

0.3125 × 2 = 0.625 →0
0.625 × 2 = 1.25 →1
0.25 × 2 = 0.5 →0
0.5 × 2 = 1 →1 (LSB)

Then 0.312510 = 0.01012

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Youssef Jaffal Lecture 2: Number Systems and Codes
General Positional Number System Conversions
Binary to Octal: Bits are grouped in “Threes” from right to
left, and the binary value of every group represents the
corresponding Octal Digit
Example

Result: 100111001012 = 23458

Binary to Hexadecimal: Similar, but in groups of four.
Example

Result: 110111001011102 = 372E16

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Addition of Binary Numbers

Example

Using the Carry vector C:

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Subtraction of Binary Numbers

Example

Using the Borrow vector B:

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Youssef Jaffal Lecture 2: Number Systems and Codes
Representation of Negative Numbers

Negative integers can be represented using signed-magnitude,

one’s complement or two’s complement notations

Sign and Magnitude: Leftmost bit is used to indicate the sign

0 for positive and 1 for negative
Example using 4 bits: +5 = 0101 and -5 = 1101
Range: from -7 to +7 (from 1111 to 0111). i.e. (−(2N−1 − 1)
to 2N−1 − 1)
Disadvantages:
Two representations of zero: (0000, 1000).
The process of addition needs a relatively complex adder.

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Complements

Complements are used in digital systems to negate a number

and to simplify the subtraction operation.
Two types of complements for any base-r system:
Radix complement: called r’s complement
Diminished radix complement: called (r − 1)’s complement
In base ten: 10’s complement, 9’s complement
In base 2: 2’s complement, 1’s complement
Diminished radix: Given a number N in base r having n digits,
the (r − 1)’s complement is defined as follows:

(rn − 1) − N

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Complements
(r − 1)’s complement = (rn − 1) − N
Ex: r = 10, what is 10n ?
It is a single ‘1’ followed by n 0s. Ex: 104 = 1000010
Ex: r = 10, what is 10n − 1?
It is n 9s. 104 − 1 = 9999
What is 9’s complement of 546700?
106 − 1 − 546700 = 999999 − 546700 = 453299

Ex: r = 2, what is 24 ? 100002

Ex: r = 2, what is 24 − 1? 11112
What is 1’s complement of 11010?
25 − 1 − 11010 = 11111 − 11010 = 00101

1’s complement: subtract each digit from 1. But 1 − 0 = 1,

1 − 1 = 0 then to get 1’s complement of a binary number, flip
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Youssef Jaffal Lecture 2: Number Systems and Codes
Complements

Radix complement: Given a number N in base r having n

digits, the r’s complement is defined as follows:
 n
r − N N 6= 0
0 N=0

Since rn − N = [(rn − 1) − N] + 1
r’s complement is obtained by taking (r − 1)’s complement and
adding 1.
Ex1: 2’s complement of 101100 is
010011 + 1 = 010100

Ex2: 10’s complement of 012398 is

987601 + 1 = 987602

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Complements
Short cuts:
10’s complement: leave all least significant 0s unchanged,
subtract first nonzero least significant digit from 10, and
subtract all higher significant digits from 9.
Ex: 10’s complement of 012398 is 987602

2’s complement: leave all least significant 0s unchanged, leave

the first 1 unchanged, flip all other higher significant digits.
Ex: 2’s complement of 101100 is 010100

What is the r’s complement of the r’s complement of a

number?

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Representation of Negative Numbers

Two’s complement: A negative number is represented by

complementing each bit of the corresponding positive number
and adding 1.
MSB has a weight of −2N−1 instead of 2N−1 .
A negative number has MSB = 1
Example using 8 bits:

000010012 = +910 = 20 + 23
111101112 = −910 = 20 + 21 + 22 + 24 + 25 + 26 −27

Range is from -128 to +127 (10000000 to 01111111)

For N bits, the range is: −2N−1 to +2N−1 − 1
Advantages:
1 representation of 0. Ex: Using 4 bits: 0000
Addition can be easily carried out.

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Representation of Negative Numbers

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2’s Complement Addition: Overflow

An overflow is said to occur if the result of the addition

exceeds the range.
Addition of 2 numbers with different signs cannot produce an
overflow.
Examples:

A simple rule to detect overflow is to check if the sign of the

result is different from the sign of the addends.
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Subtraction Rules
Most subtraction circuits for 2’s complement numbers do not
perform subtraction. Instead, we take the two’s complement
of the subtrahend and add the 2 numbers: A − B = A + (−B)
We can complement bit by bit the subtrahend, added to the
minuend and add a carry of 1
Examples:

We can use the same rules of addition to detect overflow.

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Binary Codes for decimal Numbers
Some digital devices process decimal numbers
The interface of a digital system may read or display decimal
numbers
A decimal number is represented by a string of at least 4 bits

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Binary Codes for decimal Numbers
Gray Code
Only 1 bit changes between each pair of consecutive codewords
It is a reflective code
For a 1-bit code: 0 and 1
For (N + 1) bit code, the first 2N are the same of N-bit code
with a leading 0
The last 2N are the reverse of N-bit code with a leading 1

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Binary Codes for decimal Numbers
Gray Code, Example
Figure taken from mathworks.com

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