PART 1

Data Representation (binary)

Purpose and benefits of Denary:

different number bases. - Familiar
- The number system people tend to use
Binary:
- All software used by the hardware uses binary codes which consists of bits
 Reasons why:
- All computer technoloogy is engineered with components that represent or recognised only two
states: “on” and “off”
Hexadecimal:
- Hex is useful because large numbers can be represented using fewer digits.
- Hex is easier to understand than binary. Programmers often use hex to represent binary values as
they are simpler to write and check than when using binary.

Character sets Explain the use of character sets in computer systems:

 What is?:
- A character set is a complete set of the characters and their number codes that can be recognised by a
computer system.
 Purpose:
- Character encoding tells computers how to interpret digital data into letters, numbers and symbols.
This is done by assigning a specific numeric value to a letter, number or symbol.
 ASCII code
- The scheme which has been used for a long time
- Do not cover all the characters needed
- The majority of the codes are for characters that would be found in English text and available on a
standard keyboard.
- The codes for numbers and for letters are in sequence
- Exclusively for use in the context of stored, displayed or printed text
- Other coding schemes for numbers are for internal use in a computer system, not used in a text
 Unicode:
- Represent any possible text in code form, includes all languages
- Most popular version: UTF-8
 .
1.2 Multimedia (Graphics)  Explain how a bitmap image is represented and stored on a computer
- Bitmap images are organised as a grid of coloured squares called pixels. Each different colour in the
Bitmap vs. Vector
image is stored as a binary number
 Explain how a vector graphic is represented and stored on a computer.
- Vector graphics are stored as a list of attributes.
- The computer will generate an object by looking at its attributes.
- The attributes are shown in bold, their values come immediately after the = sign.
 Explain whether a bitmap image of vector graphic is more appropriate for a given task.
Bitmap Vector
Can draw maths curves, polygons and boundaries Draw continuous and smooth lines
of curved primitives only by pixel approximation
Cost less Cost more
Occupy more space which depends on image Less space
quality
File extension: .BMP, .TIF, GIF, .JPG .SVG, .EPS, .PDF, .AI, .DXF

1.2 Multimedia (Sound)  Explain how an analogue sound wave is digitised.

- An analogue sound wave is picked up by a microphone and sent to an Analogue to Digital (ADC)
converter in the form of analogue electrical signals.
- Explain the effect of changing the sample rate and resolution on a sound wave.
 Higher sample rate:
- Tends to deliver a better-quality audio reproduction.
- The more audio processing power is required when working on the project.
 Higher resolution:
- More amplitude values are available for us to record. As a result, the continuous analog wave's exact
amplitude is closer to an available value when sampled.

1.3 Compression  Explain the need for compression.

Lossy vs. lossless - Compressed files require significantly less storage capacity than uncompressed files, meaning a
significant decrease in expenses for storage.
  Explain the difference between lossy and lossless compression
Lossy Lossless
Involves some loss of infor No loss
Compresses data cannot be recovered and Can
reconstructed exactly
Used for apps that can tolerate difference Apps that cannot
between the original and reconstructed data
High compression rate Low
For: sound, image For: text
Run-length encoding for  Show how a sound/image/text can be compressed using run-length encoding.
image/sound/text  Image:
- Runs of data (sequences in which the same data value occurs in many consecutive data elements)
are stored as a single data value and count, rather than as the original run.
 Sound
- Finding runs of repeated binary patterns and replacing them with a single instance of the pattern
and a number that specifies how many times the pattern is repeated.
 Text
- Specifying the number of times a character repeats followed by the value of the character.