G10 Computer Science P1 Data Representation N.

A DMC 2023

Data representation
✓ Number systems
Binary, denary and hexadecimal systems

➢ The binary system

• The binary number system is a base 2 number system.
• It is based on the number 2.
• The two ‘values’ 0 and 1 can be used to represent all values.
• The typical headings for a binary number with eight digits would be:

• A typical binary number would be: 11101110.

Converting from binary to denary

Each time a 1-value appears in a binary number column, the column value (heading) is added to a
total.

Example

Convert the binary number, 11101110, into a denary number.

The equivalent denary number is 128 + 64 + 32 + 8 + 4 + 2 = 238

Converting from denary to binary

The conversion from denary numbers to binary numbers can be done in two different ways:

i. successive subtraction of powers of 2

ii. successive division by 2

Example

Consider the conversion of the denary number, 142, into binary:

Method 1

The denary number 142 is made up of 128 + 8 + 4 + 2 (that is, 142 – 128 = 14; 14 – 8 = 6; 6 – 4 = 2; 2 – 2 = 0.

In each stage, subtract the largest possible power of 2 and keep doing this until the value 0 is reached.

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This will give us the following 8-bit binary number:

Method 2

• Start with the denary number,142, and divide it by 2.

• Write the result of the division including the remainder.
• Keep dividing until the result is zero.
• Finally write down all the remainders in reverse order:

➢ The hexadecimal system

• Hexadecimal (sometimes referred to as simply ‘hex’) is a base 16 system.
• It uses 16 different ‘digits’ to represent each value.
• The numbers 0 to 9 and the letters A to F are used to represent each hexadecimal (hex) digit.
• A in hex = 10 in denary, B = 11, C = 12, D = 13, E = 14 and F = 15.
• The typical headings for a hexadecimal number with five digits would be:

• A typical example of hex is 1 F 3 A.

Converting from binary to hexadecimal and from hexadecimal to binary

• Starting from the right and moving left, split the binary number into groups of 4 bits.
• If the last group has less than 4 bits, then simply fill in with 0s from the left.
• Take each group of 4 bits and convert it into the equivalent hexadecimal digit.

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Example

First split this up into groups of 4 bits (nibble), starting from the right-hand side:

Then, find the equivalent hexadecimal digits:

=11 i.e B

= 14 i.e. E

=1

Therefore, the answer is:

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Converting from hexadecimal to binary

Converting from hexadecimal to binary, simply take each hexadecimal digit and write down the 4-bit code
which corresponds to the digit.

Example

Find the 4 bit code for each digit:

Put the groups together to form the binary number:

Converting from hexadecimal to denary

• Involves the value headings of each hexadecimal digit; that is, 4096, 256, 16 and 1.
• Take each of the hexadecimal digits and multiply it by the heading values.
• Add all the resultant totals together to give the denary number.

Example

Convert the hexadecimal number, 4 5 A, into denary.

Add the three totals together (1024 + 80 + 10) to give the denary number:

Converting from denary to hexadecimal

To convert from denary to hexadecimal involves successive division by 16 until the value “0” is reached.

Example

Convert the denary number, 2004, into hexadecimal.

Note: Converting from hexadecimal to denary and vice versa can also be done via conversion into binary.

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Use of the hexadecimal system

Four uses of the hexadecimal system:

• Error codes
These numbers refer to the memory location of the error and are usually automatically generated by the
computer.
• MAC addresses
MAC address refers to a number which uniquely identifies a device on a network.
• IPv6 addresses
- An IPv4 address is a 32-bit number written in denary or hexadecimal form: e.g. 109.108.158.1 (or
77.76.9e.01 in hex).
- An IPv6 address is a 128-bit number broken down into 16-bit chunks, represented by a hexadecimal
number.
• HTML colour codes
- HyperText Mark-up Language (HTML) is used when writing and developing web pages.
- The different intensity of each colour (red, green and blue) is determined by its hexadecimal value.

Addition of binary numbers

Example 1

Add 00100111 + 01001010

We will set this out showing carry and sum values:

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Example 2

126 + 62

• Convert 126 and 62 into binary.

• Add the two binary values and check the result matches the addition of the two denary numbers.
• 126 = 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 and 62 = 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0

1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 has the equivalent denary value of 128 + 32 + 16 + 8 + 4 = 188 which is the same as 126 + 62.

Overflow

Example

Add 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 and 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 (using 8 bits)

• This addition has generated a 9th bit.

• The maximum denary value of an 8-bit binary number is 255.
• The 9th bit is a clear indication that the sum has exceeded this value.
• This is known as an overflow error.
• This indicates that a number is too big to be stored in the computer using 8 bits.

Logical binary shifts

• The logical shift means moving the binary number to the left or to the right.
• Each shift left is equivalent to multiplying the binary number by 2.
• Each shift right is equivalent to dividing the binary number by 2.
• As bits are shifted, any empty positions are replaced with a zero.
• If any 1-bit is lost, this will result in an error.

Example 1
The denary number 21 is 00010101 in binary. We put this into an 8-bit register:

We now shift the bits in this register one place to the left, we obtain:

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The value of the binary bits is now 21 × 21 i.e. 42.

We can see this is correct if we calculate the denary value of the new binary number 101010 (i.e. 32 + 8 + 2).

Let us consider what happens if we shift the original binary number 00010101 four places left:

The left-most 1-bit has been lost. In our 8-bit register the result of 21 × 24 is 80 which is clearly incorrect. This
error is because we have exceeded the maximum number of left shifts possible using this register.

Example 2
The denary number 200 is 11001000 in binary. Putting this into an 8-bit register gives:

We now shift the bits in this register one place to the right:

The value of the binary bits is now 200 ÷ 21 i.e. 100. We can see this is correct by converting the new binary
number 01100100 to denary (64 + 32 + 4).

Example 3
a) Convert 19 and 17 into binary.
b) Carry out the binary addition of the two numbers.
c) Shift your result from part b two places left and comment on the result.
d) Shift your result from part b three places right and comment on the result.

In (c), the result is 36 × 22 = 144 (which is correct).

In (d) the result of the right shift gives a value of 4, which is incorrect since 36 ÷ 23 is not 4; therefore, the
number of possible right shifts has been exceeded. You can also see that a 1 has been lost from the original
binary number, which is another sign that there have been too many right shifts.

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Two’s complement (binary numbers)

To allow the possibility of representing negative integers we make use of two’s complement.

The binary headings are:

In two’s complement the left-most bit is changed to a negative value. For instance, for an 8-bit number, the
value 128 is now changed to −128.

This means the new range of possible numbers is: −128 (10000000) to +127 (01111111).

The left-most bit always determines the sign of the binary number.

➢ A 1-value in the left-most bit indicates a negative number and a 0-value in the left-most bit indicates a
positive number.

For example, 00110011 represents 51 and 11001111 represents −49.

Writing positive binary numbers in two’s complement format

The following two examples show how we can write the following positive binary numbers in the two’s
complement format 19 and 4:

➢ If we wish to convert a positive denary number to the two’s complement format, we do exactly the same
as taught previously at the very start of the topic. Since the number is positive, we must have a zero in the
–128 column.
➢ Converting positive binary numbers in the two’s complement format to positive denary numbers involve
exactly the same method explained at the start of the topic. Each time a 1 appears in a column, the
column value is added to the total.

Writing negative binary numbers in two’s complement format and converting to denary

Example 1

Each time a 1 appears in a column, the column value is added to the total. So, we can see that in
denary this is: −128 + 16 + 2 + 1 = −109.

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Converting negative denary numbers into binary numbers in two’s complement format
Let’s consider the number −67
Method 1

Simply put 1s in their correct places:

Method 2

➢ When applying two’s complement, it isn’t always necessary for a binary number to have 8 bits:

Example 1

Example 2

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✓ Text, sound and images

▪ Text
Character set – a list of characters that have been defined by computer hardware and software. The character
set is necessary so that the computer can understand human characters.

ASCII code – a character set for all the characters on a standard keyboard and control codes.

It does not represent characters in non-Western languages, for example Chinese characters.

Unicode – a character set which represents all the languages of the world (the first 128 characters are the
same as ASCII code)

▪ Sound
Sampling means measuring the amplitude of a sound wave. This is done using an analogue to digital converter
(ADC).

➢ Increasing the number of possible values used to represent sound amplitude also increases the
accuracy of the sampled sound.

The number of bits per sample is known as the sampling resolution (also known as the bit depth).

Sampling rate is the number of sound samples taken per second. This is measured in hertz (Hz), where 1 Hz
means ‘one sample per second’.

How is sampling used to record a sound clip?

• The amplitude of the sound wave is first determined at set time intervals (the sampling rate).
• This gives an approximate representation of the sound wave.
• Each sample of the sound wave is then encoded as a series of binary digits.

➢ Using a higher sampling rate or larger resolution will result in a more faithful representation of the
original sound source. However, the higher the sampling rate and/or sampling resolution, the
greater the file size.

The benefits and drawbacks of using a larger sampling resolution when recording sound

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▪ Representation of (bitmap) images

• bitmap image – an image made up of pixels.

• pixel – derived from the term 'picture element', this is the smallest element used to make up
an image on a display.
• image resolution – the number of pixels in the X–Y direction of an image, for example, 4096
× 3192 pixels.
• pixelated (image) – this is the result of zooming into a bitmap image.
• pixel density – number of pixels per square inch.

Each pixel can be represented as a binary number, and so a bitmap image is stored in a computer as
a series of binary numbers.

• a black and white image only requires 1 bit per pixel – this means that each pixel can be one
of two colours, corresponding to either 1 or 0
• if each pixel is represented by 2 bits, then each pixel can be one of four colours (22 = 4),
corresponding to 00, 01, 10, or 11
• if each pixel is represented by 3 bits then each pixel can be one of eight colours (23 = 8),
corresponding to 000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110, 111.

➢ The number of bits used to represent each colour is called the colour depth.

As the number of pixels used to represent the image is increased, the size of the file will also increase.
This impacts on:

• how many images can be stored on, for example, a hard drive.
• the time to download an image from the internet or the time to transfer images from device
to device.

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Data storage and file compression

Measurement of data storage

• A bit is the basic unit of all computing memory storage terms and is either 1 or 0.
• The byte is the smallest unit of memory in a computer.
• 1 byte is 8 bits. A 4-bit number is called a nibble – half a byte.

Memory size

Calculation of file size

The file size of an image is calculated as:

The size of a mono sound file is calculated as:

For a stereo sound file, you would then multiply the result by two.

Example 1

A photograph is 1024 × 1080 pixels and uses a colour depth of 32 bits. How many photographs of this size
would fit onto a memory stick of 64 GiB?

i. Multiply number of pixels in vertical and horizontal directions to find total number of pixels =
(1024 × 1080) = 1 105 920 pixels
ii. Now multiply number of pixels by colour depth then divide by 8 to give the number of bytes
= 1 105 920 × 32 = 35 389 440/8 bytes = 4 423 680 bytes
iii. 64 GiB = 64 × 1024 × 1024 × 1024 = 68 719 476 736 bytes
iv. Finally divide the memory stick size by the files size = 68 719 476 736/4 423 680 = 15 534
photos.

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Example 2

A camera detector has an array of 2048 by 2048 pixels and uses a colour depth of 16. Find the size of an
image taken by this camera in MiB.

i. Multiply number of pixels in vertical and horizontal directions to find total number of pixels = (2 048 ×
2 048) = 4 194 304 pixels
ii. Now multiply number of pixels by colour depth = 4 194 304 × 16 = 67 108 864 bits
iii. Now divide number of bits by 8 to find the number of bytes in the file = (67 108 864)/8 = 8 388 608
bytes
iv. Now divide by 1024 × 1024 to convert to MiB = (8 388 608)/(1 048 576) = 8 MiB.

Example 3

An audio CD has a sample rate of 44 100 and a sample resolution of 16 bits. The music being sampled uses
two channels to allow for stereo recording. Calculate the file size for a 60-minute recording.

i. Size of file = sample rate (in Hz) × sample resolution (in bits) × length of sample (in seconds)
ii. Size of sample = (44 100 × 16 × (60 × 60)) = 2 540 160 000 bits
iii. Multiply by 2 since there are two channels being used = 5 080 320 000 bits
iv. Divide by 8 to find number of bytes = (5 080 320 000)/8 = 635 040 000
v. Divide by 1024 × 1024 to convert to MiB = 635 040 000 / 1 048 576 = 605 MiB.

Data compression
Compression means the reduction of the size of a file by removing repeated or redundant pieces of
data; this can be lossy or lossless

Reasons to reduce (or compress) the size of a file:

i. To save storage space on devices

ii. To reduce the time taken to stream a music or video file
iii. To reduce the time taken to upload, download or transfer a file across a network
iv. To use less bandwidth
v. Reduced file size also reduces costs, e.g. when using cloud storage.

File compression can either be lossless or lossy.

Lossy file compression

• With this technique, the file compression algorithm eliminates unnecessary data from the
file.
• It results in some loss of detail when compared to the original file.
• This means the original file cannot be reconstructed once it has been compressed.
• The algorithm has to decide which parts of the file need to be retained and which parts can
be discarded.
• Lossy files are smaller than lossless files.
• Common lossy file compression algorithms are MPEG-3 (MP3), MPEG-4 (MP4) and JPEG.

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When applying a lossy file compression algorithm to:

• an image, it may reduce the resolution and/or the bit/colour depth

• a sound file, it may reduce the sampling rate and/or the resolution.

MP3 files are used for playing music on computers or mobile phones. This compression technology
will reduce the size of a normal music file by about 90%.

• The algorithm removes sounds that the human ear can’t hear properly. For example:
removal of sounds outside the human ear range. This is called perceptual music shaping
(PMS).

Lossless file compression

• With this technique, all the data from the original uncompressed file can be reconstructed.
• None of the original detail from the file is lost.

Run-length encoding (RLE) can be used for lossless compression of a number of different file
formats:

• it reduces the size of a string of adjacent, identical data (e.g. repeated colours in an image)
• a repeating string is encoded into two values:
o the first value represents the number of identical data items (e.g. characters) in the
run
o the second value represents the code of the data item (such as ASCII code if it is a
keyboard character)

➢ RLE is only effective where there is a long run of repeated units/bits.

Example 1: Black and white image

The letter ‘F’ in a grid where each square requires 1 byte of storage. A white square has a value 1 and a black
square a value of 0:

The 8 × 8 grid would need 64 bytes; the compressed RLE format has 30 values, and therefore needs
only 30 bytes to store the image.

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