Unsigned Integers

For positive (unsigned) integers, there is a 1-to-1 relationship between the decimal
representation of a number and its binary representation. If you have a 4-bit
number, there are 16 possible combinations, and the unsigned numbers go from 0
to 15:
0b0000 = 0 0b0001 = 1 0b0010 = 2 0b0011 = 3
0b0100 = 4 0b0101 = 5 0b0110 = 6 0b0111 = 7
0b1000 = 8 0b1001 = 9 0b1010 = 10 0b1011 = 11
0b1100 = 12 0b1101 = 13 0b1110 = 14 0b1111 = 15

The range of an unsigned number is 0 → 2w - 1, where w is the number of bits in

our integer. For example, a 32-bit int can represent numbers from 0 to 232 - 1,
or 0 to 4,294,967,295.
Unsigned Integers
 How to Represent A Signed Value
A signed integer is a negative, 0, or positive
integer.

How can we represent both negative and

positive numbers in binary?
 Signed Integers
• A signed integer is a negative integer, 0, or a positive integer.
• Problem: How can we represent negative and positive numbers in binary?

Idea: let’s reserve the most

significant bit to store the sign.
Sign Magnitude Representation

0110
positive 6

1011
negative 3
Sign Magnitude Representation

0000
positive 0

1000
negative 0
 Sign Magnitude Representation
1 000 = -0 0 000 = 0
1 001 = -1 0 001 = 1
1 010 = -2 0 010 = 2
1 011 = -3 0 011 = 3
1 100 = -4 0 100 = 4
1 101 = -5 0 101 = 5
1 110 = -6 0 110 = 6
1 111 = -7 0 111 = 7

• We’ve only represented 15 of our 16 available numbers!

 Sign Magnitude Representation AKA Ones
Complement
• Pro: easy to represent, and easy to convert to/from decimal.
• Con: +-0 is not intuitive
• Con: we lose a bit that could be used to store more numbers
• Con: arithmetic is tricky: we need to find the sign, then maybe subtract
(borrow and carry, etc.), then maybe change the sign. This complicates the
hardware support for something as fundamental as addition.

Can we do better?
Now Lets Try a Better Approach!
 A Better Idea
• Ideally, binary addition would just work regardless of whether the number is
positive or negative.

0101
+????

0000
 A Better Idea
• Ideally, binary addition would just work regardless of whether the number is
positive or negative.

0101
+1011

0000
 A Better Idea
• Ideally, binary addition would just work regardless of whether the number is
positive or negative.

0011
+????

0000
 A Better Idea
• Ideally, binary addition would just work regardless of whether the number is
positive or negative.

0011
+1101

0000
 A Better Idea
• Ideally, binary addition would just work regardless of whether the number is
positive or negative.

0000
+????

0000
 A Better Idea
• Ideally, binary addition would just work regardless of whether the number is
positive or negative.

0000
+0000

0000
 There Seems Like a Pattern Here…

0101 0011 0000

+1011 +1101 +0000

0000 0000 0000

• The negative number is the positive number inverted, plus one!
 There Seems Like a Pattern Here…

A binary number plus its inverse is all 1s. Add 1 to this to carry over all 1s and get 0!

0101 1111
+1010 +0001

1111 0000
 Another Trick
• To find the negative equivalent of a number, work right-to-left and write down
all digits through when you reach a 1. Then, invert the rest of the digits.

100100
+??????

000000
 Another Trick
• To find the negative equivalent of a number, work right-to-left and write down
all digits through when you reach a 1. Then, invert the rest of the digits.

100100
+???100

000000
 Another Trick
• To find the negative equivalent of a number, work right-to-left and write down
all digits through when you reach a 1. Then, invert the rest of the digits.

100100
+ 011100

000000
Two’s Complement
 Two’s Complement
• In two’s complement, we represent a
positive number as itself, and its
negative equivalent as the two’s
complement of itself.
• The two’s complement of a number is
the binary digits inverted, plus 1.
• This works to convert from positive to
negative, and back from negative to
positive!
 Two’s Complement
• Con: more difficult to represent, and
difficult to convert to/from decimal and
between positive and negative.
• Pro: only 1 representation for 0!
• Pro: all bits are used to represent as
many numbers as possible
• Pro: the most significant bit still indicates
the sign of a number.
• Pro: addition works for any combination
of positive and negative!
 Two’s Complement
• Adding two numbers is just…adding! There is no special case needed for
negatives. E.g. what is 2 + -5?

0010 2

+1011 -5

1101 -3
 Two’s Complement
• Subtracting two numbers is just performing the two’s complement on one of
them and then adding. E.g. 4 – 5 = -1.

0100 4 0100 4

- 0101 5 +1011 -5

1111 -1
 How to Read Two’s Complement #s
• Multiply the most significant bit by -1 and multiply all the other bits by 1 as normal

1 1
_ _ 1
_ 0
_
23 22 21 20
= 1*-8 + 1*4 + 1*2 + 0*1 = -2
 How to Read Two’s Complement #s
• Multiply the most significant bit by -1 and multiply all the other bits by 1 as normal

0 1
_ _ 1
_ 0
_
23 22 21 20
= 0*-8 + 1*4 + 1*2 + 0*1 = 6
 Practice: Two’s Complement
What are the negative or positive equivalents of the numbers below?
a) -4 (1100)
b) 7 (0111)
c) 3 (0011)
 Practice: Two’s Complement
What are the negative or positive equivalents of the numbers below?
a) -4 (1100) -> 4 (0100)
b) 7 (0111) -> (1001)
c) 3 (0011) -> (1101)
Some Extra Slides for Review
Two's Complement
In practice, a negative number in two's
complement is obtained by inverting all
the bits of its positive counterpart*, and
then adding 1, or: x = ~x + 1
Example: The number 2 is represented as normal in
binary: 0010

-2 is represented by inverting the bits, and adding 1:

0010 ☞ 1101

1101
+ 1
1110

*Inverting all the bits of a number is its "one's complement"

Two's Complement
To convert a negative number to a
positive number, perform the same
steps!
Example: The number -5 is represented in two's
complements as: 1011

5 is represented by inverting the bits, and adding 1:

1011 ☞ 0100

0100
+ 1
0101

Shortcut: start from the right, and write down

numbers until you get to a 1:
1
Now invert all the rest of the digits:
0101
Two's Complement: Neat Properties
There are a number of useful properties
associated with two's complement
numbers:

1. There is only one zero (yay!)

2. The highest order bit (left-most) is 1
for negative, 0 for positive (so it is
easy to tell if a number is negative)
3. Adding two numbers is just…adding!
Example:
2 + -5 = -3

0010 ☞ 2
+1011 ☞ -5
1101 ☞ -3 decimal (wow!)
Two's Complement: Neat Properties
More useful properties:

4. Subtracting two numbers is simply

performing the two's complement on
one of them and then adding.
Example:
4 - 5 = -1

0100 ☞ 4, 0101 ☞ 5
Find the two's complement of 5: 1011
add:
0100 ☞ 4
+1011 ☞ -5
1111 ☞ -1 decimal
Practice
Convert the following 4-bit numbers
from positive to negative, or from
negative to positive using two's
complement notation:

a. -4 (1100) ☞

b. 7 (0111) ☞

c. 3 (0011) ☞

d. -8 (1000) ☞
Practice
Convert the following 4-bit numbers
from positive to negative, or from
negative to positive using two's
complement notation:

a. -4 (1100) ☞ 0100

b. 7 (0111) ☞ 1001

c. 3 (0011) ☞ 1101

d. -8 (1000) ☞ 1000 (?! If you look at

the chart, +8 cannot be represented
in two's complement with 4 bits!)
Practice
Convert the following 8-bit numbers
from positive to negative, or from
negative to positive using two's
complement notation:

a. -4 (11111100) ☞ 00000100

b. 27 (00011011) ☞ 11100101

c. -127 (10000001) ☞ 01111111

d. 1 (00000001) ☞ 11111111
 History: Two’s complement
• The binary representation was first proposed by John
von Neumann in First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC
(1945)
• That same year, he also invented the merge sort algorithm

• Many early computers used +7 0b0000 0111

sign-magnitude or EDSAC (1949)
-7 0b1111 1000
one’s complement 8-bit one’s complement

• The System/360, developed by IBM in 1964, was

widely popular (had 1024KB memory) and
established two’s complement as the dominant
binary representation of integers
System/360 (1964)
117
 Overflow
• What is happening here? Assume 4-bit numbers.
0b1101
+ 0b0100 15 0 1
14 2
13 3
12 4

11 5
10 6
9 8 7

127
 Overflow
• What is happening here? Assume 4-bit numbers.
0b1101
+ 0b0100 15 0 1
14 2
13 3
12 4

Signed Unsigned 11 5
10 6
-3 + 4 = 1 13 + 4 = 1 9 8 7

No overflow Overflow
 Overflow in Signed Addition
Signed overflow wraps around to the negative numbers:

YouTube fell into this trap — their view counter was a signed, 32-bit int. They
fixed it after it was noticed, but for a while, the view count for Gangnam Style
(the first video with over INT_MAX number of views) was negative.
 Overflow In Practice: PSY

YouTube: “We never thought a video would be watched in numbers

greater than a 32-bit integer (=2,147,483,647 views), but that was before
we met PSY. "Gangnam Style" has been viewed so many times we had to
upgrade to a 64-bit integer (9,223,372,036,854,775,808)!”
 Overflow in Signed Addition
In the news on January 5, 2022 (!):

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/01/google-fixes-nightmare-android-bug-
that-stopped-user-from-calling-911/
 Overflow In Practice: Timestamps
• Many systems store timestamps as the number of seconds since Jan. 1, 1970
in a signed 32-bit integer.
• Problem: the latest timestamp that can be represented this way is 3:14:07 UTC
on Jan. 13 2038!
 Overflow In Practice: Gandhi
• In the game “Civilization”, each
civilization leader had an
“aggression” rating. Gandhi was
meant to be peaceful, and had a
score of 1.
• If you adopted “democracy”, all
players’ aggression reduced by 2.
Gandhi’s went from 1 to 255!
• Gandhi then became a big fan of
nuclear weapons.
https://kotaku.com/why-gandhi-is-such-an-asshole-in-civilization-1653818245

148
 Overflow in Practice:
• Pacman Level 256
• Make sure to reboot Boeing Dreamliners every 248 days
• Comair/Delta airline had to cancel thousands of flights days before Christmas
• Reported vulnerability CVE-2019-3857 in libssh2 may allow a hacker to
remotely execute code
• Donkey Kong Kill Screen