BINARY CODES

Classification of Binary Codes

 1. Numeric and Alphanumeric Codes
• Binary codes can be classified as numeric codes and
alphanumeric codes.
• Numeric codes are codes which represent numeric
information, i.e. only numbers as a series of 0s and 1s.
8421, Excess-3, Gray code are numeric codes.
• Numeric codes used to represent the decimal digits are called
Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) codes.
8421, 2421, 5211 are BCD codes.
• Alphanumeric codes are codes which represent alphanumeric
information, i.e. letters of the alphabet and decimal numbers
as a sequence of 0s and 1s.
EBCDIC code and ASCII code are alphanumeric codes.
 2. Weighted and Non-weighted Codes
• The BCD codes may be weighted codes or non-weighted codes.
• The weighted codes are those which obey the position-
weighting principal. Each position of the number represents a
specific weight.
• For each group of four bits, the sum of the weights of those
positions where the binary digits is 1 is equal to the decimal
digit which the group represents.
8421, 2421, 84-2-1 are weighted codes.
• Non-weighted codes are codes which are not assigned with
any weight to each digit position, i.e. each digit position within
the number is not assigned fixed value.
Excess-3 code and Gray code are non-weighted codes.
 3. Positively-weighted and Negatively-
weighted Codes
• The weighted codes may be either positively-weighted
codes or negatively-weighted codes.
• Positively-weighted codes are those in which all the
weights assigned to the binary digits are positive.
• In every positively-weighted code, the first weight must be
1, the second weight must be either 1 or 2, and sum of all
the weights must be equal to or greater than 9.
Example: 8421, 2421, 5211, 3321, 4321 codes.
• Negatively-weighted codes are those in which some of the
weights assigned to the binary digits are negative.
Example: 642-3, 631-1, 84-2-1, 74-2-1 codes.
 4. Error Detecting and Error Correcting
Codes
• Binary codes may also be error detecting codes or
error correcting codes.
• Codes which allow only error detection are called
error detecting codes.
Shift counter code, 2-out-of-5, 63210 codes are error
detecting codes.
• Codes which allow error detection as well as
error correction are called error correcting codes.
The Hamming code is a error correcting code.
 5. Sequential Codes
• Sequential code is one, in which each
succeeding code word is one binary number
greater than its preceding code word.
The 8421 and Excess-3 codes are sequential.
The codes 5211, 2421 and 642-3 are not sequential.
 6. Self-complementing Codes
• A code is said to be self-complementing, if the code
word of the 9’s complement of N, i.e. of 9-N can be
obtained from the code word of N by interchanging
all the 0s and 1s.
• Therefore, in a self-complementing code, the code
for 9 is the complement of the code for 0, the code
for 8 is the complement of the code for 1, and so on.
The 2421, 5211, 642-3, 84-2-1 and Excess-3 codes are self-
complementing codes.
The 8421 and 5421 codes are not self-complementing codes.
 7. Cyclic Codes
• Cyclic codes are those in which each
successive code word differs from the
preceding one in only one bit position.
• They are also called unit distance codes.
The Gray code is a cyclic code.
 8. Reflective Codes
• A reflective code is a binary code in which the
n least significant bits for code words 2n
through 2n+1 - 1 are the mirror images of those
for 0 through 2n - 1.
The Gray code is a reflective code.
 The 8421 BCD Code
• The 8421 BCD code is so widely used that is a
common practice to refer to it simply as BCD code.
• In this code, each decimal digit, 0 through 9, is
coded by a 4-bit binary number.
• It is also called the natural binary code because of
the 8, 4, 2 and 1 weights attached to it.
• It is a weighted code and is also sequential.
Therefore, it is useful for mathematical operations.
• The main advantage of this code is its ease of
conversion to and from decimal.
• It is less efficient than the pure binary, in the
sense that it requires more bits.
For example, the decimal number 14 can be
represented as 1110 in pure binary but as 0001 0100
in 8421 code.
• Another disadvantage of the BCD code is that,
arithmetic operations are more complex than they
in pure binary.
 The Gray Code
• The Gray code is a non-weighted code, and is not
suitable for arithmetic operations. It is not a BCD
code.
• It is a cyclic code because successive code words in
this code differ in one bit position only, i.e. it is a
unit distance code.
• It is also reflective code, i.e. it is both reflective and
unit distance.
The n least significant bits for 2n through 2n+1 - 1 are the
mirror images of the those for 0 through 2n - 1.
• Gray codes are used in instrumentation and
data acquisition systems where linear or
angular displacement is measured.
• They are also used in shaft encoders, I/O
devices, A/D converters and other peripheral
equipment.
 The ASCII Code
• The American Standard Code for Information
Interchange (ASCII) is a widely used alphanumeric code.
• This is basically a 7-bit code. Since the number of
different bit patterns that can be created with 7 bits is 27
= 128, the ASCII can be used to encode both lowercase
and uppercase characters of the alphabet (52 symbols)
and some special symbols as well, in addition to the 10
decimal digits.
• It is used extensively for printers and terminals that
interface with small computer systems.