Chapter 1: Data Storage

• 1.1 Bits and Their Storage

• 1.2 Main Memory
• 1.3 Mass Storage
• 1.4 Representing Information as Bit Patterns
• 1.5 The Binary System
• 1.6 Storing Integers
• 1.7 Storing Fractions
• 1.8 Data Compression
• 1.9 Communications Errors

1-1
 Bits and their meaning

• Bit (or Binary Digit) a symbol whose meaning

depends on the application at hand.
• Some possible meanings for a single bit
– Numeric value (1 or 0)
– Boolean value (true or false)
– Voltage (high or low)

1-2
 Bit patterns

• All data stored in a computer are represented by

patterns of bits:
– Numbers
– Text characters
– Images
– Sound
– Anything else…

1-3
 Boolean operations

• Boolean operation is any operation that

manipulates one or more true/false values
– Can be used to operate on bits
– often referred to as a logical operation
• Specific operations
– AND
– OR
– XOR (‘exclusive OR’: X or Y but not both)
– NOT

1-4
Figure 1.1 The Boolean operations
AND, OR, and XOR (exclusive or)

1-5
 Gates

• Gates are devices that produce the outputs of

Boolean operations when given the operations’
input values
– Often implemented as electronic circuits
– Provide the building blocks from which computers
are constructed

1-6
A pictorial representation of AND, OR, XOR, and
NOT gates, as well as their input and output values

1-7
 Flip-flops

• Flip-flop is a circuit built from gates that can

store one bit of data.
– Has an input line which sets its stored value to 1
– Has an input line which sets its stored value to 0
– While both input lines are 0, the most recently
stored value is preserved

1-8
Figure 1.3 A simple flip-flop circuit

1-9
Figure 1.4 Setting the output of a
flip-flop to 1 (cont’d)

1-10
 Hexadecimal notation
• The hexadecimal system is a counting system using
base 16 (c.f. decimal, which uses base 10 -see later
notes)

• Hexadecimal notation: A shorthand notation for

long bit patterns
– Divides a pattern into groups of four bits each
– Represents each group by a single symbol
• Example: 10100011 becomes A3

1-11
Figure 1.6 The hexadecimal
coding system

1-12
Main Memory

• The main memory acts as the central storage

unit in a computer system. It is a relatively
large and fast memory which is used to store
programs and data during the run time
operations.

• The primary technology used for the main

memory is based on semiconductor integrated
circuits. 1-13
 Main memory: cells

• Cell: A unit of main memory (typically 8 bits which is

one byte)
– Most significant bit: the bit at the left (high-order)
end of the conceptual row of bits in a memory cell
– Least significant bit: the bit at the right (low-
order) end of the conceptual row of bits in a
memory cell

1-14
Figure 1.7 The organization of a
byte-size memory cell

MSB LSB

1-15
Word : A general term describing several
consecutive bytes in memory (usually 2 or 4).

15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
 2-byte 
word
MSB LSB
 30 29 28 27 
31 5 4 3 2 1 0
4-byte word
1-16
 Main memory addresses

• Address: A “name” that uniquely identifies one cell in

the computer’s main memory
– The names are actually numbers.
– These numbers are assigned consecutively starting
at zero.
– Numbering the cells in this manner associates an
order with the memory cells.
• Cells have an order, so “previous cell” and “next cell”
have reasonable meanings.
1-17
Figure: Memory cells arranged by
address

1-18
 Main Memory
• Every computer contains both Random Access
Memory (RAM) and Read-Only Memory (ROM).
• RAM is a type of volatile memory that saves the files
people are operating on for a short period. Whereas,
ROM is a type of non-volatile memory that saves
commands for a computer indefinitely.
• Data that has been saved in RAM can be recovered
and modified because it can be read and write.
However, only read-only data can be stored in ROM.

1-19
Main Memory: Physical view

Bank 0 Bank K
0 0 • Memory is composed of a
1 1
number of banks.
2 2
3 3
. . • Each bank has a number of
. . bytes arranged as an array.
. .
. .
. .
N N

1-20
Main Memory: Physical view
Bank 0
• Some bytes are kept in RAM, some in
ROM, some in I/O ports (special purpose
ROM registers).

Port 1
• Bytes in RAM can be read/written.
Port 2
• Bytes in ROM can be read only.
Port n

RAM
1-21
 Main Memory: Logical view
("Logical" means "As a programmer would imagine it")
Main
Memory
0
1 • Memory is composed of a number of bytes
2

3
• Bytes are arranged as an array
. • Each byte has an address (byte#)
.

1-22
 Measuring memory capacity

• Kilobyte: 210 bytes = 1024 bytes

– Example: 3 KB = 3 times1024 bytes

• Megabyte: 220 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes

– Example: 3 MB = 3 times 1,048,576 bytes

• Gigabyte: 230 bytes = 1,073,741,824 bytes

– Example: 3 GB = 3 times 1,073,741,824 bytes

1-23
 Mass Storage Systems

• Non-volatile: data remains when computer is off

• Usually much bigger than main memory
• Much slower than main memory
• Magnetic Systems
– Disk, Tape
• Optical Systems
– CD, DVD
• Flash Technology
– Flash Drives, Secure Digital (SD) Memory Card
1-24
 Figure 1.9 A disk storage system

Each track contains same number of sectors, each with

same number of bits – unless zoned-bit recording is used
to add more sectors to longer, outer tracks
1-25
 CD & DVD data storage
• One continuous spiral data track
– in one revolution more data is read from outer part of track
than from inner
• Uniform rate of data transfer can only be achieved by
varying the rotation speed
• Most systems use constant rotation speed therefore the
system must handle varying data transfer rates
• Typical capacity: 600-700 MB (CD)
several GB (DVD)

1-26
 Files
• File is the unit of data stored on a mass storage
system.
– Logical record natural groups of data within a file
i.e. natural from the programmer point of view
– Field : sub-unit of logical record
• Key field holds identifier key
• Physical record: A block of data conforming to
the physical characteristics of the storage device.
• Buffer: A memory area used for the temporary
storage of data . 1-27
Figure 1.12: Logical records
versus physical records on a disk

1-28
Representing Data
External representation: (for people) to use data
easily, data must be represented (visually,
graphically, ...) on paper or on some other directly
useable media.

Internal representation: (for computing machines)

to support storage and computation, data must be
represented as a sequence of 0's and 1's.

1-29
Representing Data

How to represent data on paper? in memory?

Coding is representing data according to a
system, internally or externally.
Information is coded:
• For internal computations
• For presentation purposes (text, graphics, sound)
• For long-term archival storage (databases, archives)

1-30
Representing Data

In all cases, data must be coded as a data type,

in order to be recognized later.

In a computer system:
Text data must be represented according to
standard coding table(s),
Numerical data must be represented by some
notation (a number system)
Representing Numeric Data
• Internal number representation:
Always a sequence of 0's and
1's: ...01100111001010 ...
• External number representation:
Many notations (number representation systems)
• Context-dependent notations
• Positional (fixed point) notations
• Floating point notation
1-32
 Representing Numeric Data (Externally)
Non-positional notation
Roman Numerals:
• Positions do not carry weights
• Digits are interpreted according to context
Numeral means
XIV = 14
I 1 or -1 (add 1 or subtract 1)
MCMLXXIV = 1974
V 5 or -5

X 10 or -10
Negative numbers had not
L 50 or -50 been invented yet!
C 100 or -100

D 500 or -500

M 1000
1-33
Representing Numeric Data (Externally)
Positional notation

For representing data externally, the most commonly

used number systems:

Number System Radix (base) Digits used

Decimal 10 0123456789
Binary 2 01
Octal 8 01234567
Hexadecimal 16 0123456789
ABCDEF

1-34
Representing Non-numeric Data
When the computing device has to handle letters
and special symbols, each symbol is coded
separately.
Two dominant coding schemes are:
 ASCII (American Standard Code for Information
Interchange)
 EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal
Interchange Code)
1-35
Representing Strings in ASCII

String: a sequence of bytes (characters).

Generally contains text characters,
Can have any number of characters,
The end point must be specified in some way.

A N K A R A ...
 Code for 'A' in ASCII table

1-37
Figure 1.13 The message “Hello.”
in ASCII

1-38
1-39
1-40
Octal encoding:
for encoding a bit stream in groups of three
Bit pattern Octal representation
000 0
001 1
010 2
011 3
100 4
101 5
110 6
111 7
1-41
Representing Images
Two approaches:
(1) Bit map techniques
– Represent image as collection of dots (pixels)
– Black and white binary images
• Pixel values either 0 (black) or 1 (white)
– Black and white (monochrome) images
• Pixel values range from 0 to 255 (commonly)
– Colour images
• Pixel represented as 3 colour components
– Red, Green & Blue (RGB)
• Problems with resizing, zooming
1-42
Representing Still Images

(2) Vector techniques

• Image represented as set of lines and curves
(circles or polygones), specified as a
description
• Details of drawing left to the device
– Used in computer-aided design systems

1-43
Colour depth

4-bit colour

1-bit colour

24-bit colour 8-bit colour

1-44
• The colour depth of an image is determined by the available
palette size
– 1-bit images support 2 “colours” black/white binary images
– 8-bit images support 256 grey levels
– 24-bit images support 16 million colours
• Many image formats:
– .png - Portable Network Graphics Format
– .bmp - Windows bitmap
– .pic – PC Paint graphics format
– .mac – Macintosh MacPaint format
– .gif (Graphics Interchange Format) – common for graphics on the world wide web
– .jpg – JPEG image (Joint Photographic Experts Group) – platform independent –
used for photos
– .tif ( Tagged image file format (TIFF)

1-45
Representing numeric values

• Binary notation – uses bits to represent a

number in base two
• Limitations of computer representations of
numeric values
– Overflow – happens when a number is too big to be
represented. If the bit sequence is cut off to fit the
space available, this is truncation.

1-46
base ten (decimal - or denary)
& base two (binary) systems

1-48
Figure 1.16 Decoding the binary
representation 100101

1-49
Figure 1.17 An algorithm for finding
the binary representation of a positive
integer

1-50
Figure 1.18 Applying the algorithm in
to obtain the binary representation of
thirteen

1-51
Informal restatement of the algorithm
Finding the binary representation of a positive integer P:
Repeatedly divide P by 2, recording the remainders from
right to left. Stop when you get 0 in the result (not as the
remainder)
Example: P=13
13 = 2 x 6 +1 1.
6=2x3+0 01.
3=2x1+1 101.
1=2x0+1 1101. STOP

1-52
Figure 1.19 The binary addition
facts

1-53
Decimal addition
Addition in base 10:
1 8 0 9
+ 0 3 2 3
2 1 3 2
• • (carry)
• We start with a carry value of 0.
• Whenever the sum gets larger than 9, we
add 1 to the carry.
• The carry is added at the next position.
1-54
Binary addition
Addition in base 2:
1 1 0 1
+ 0 1 0 1
10 0 1 0
• • • (carry)
• We start with a carry value of 0.
• Whenever the sum gets larger than 1, we add
1 to the carry.
• The carry is added at the next position.
1-55
Fractions in binary:
Decoding the binary representation
101.101

1-56
Finding the binary representation of a
fraction
Informal algorithm for encoding:
Repeatedly subtract successive negative powers of 2, recording the
success (1) or failure (0) of the subtraction, from left to right after the
radix point. Stop when subtraction gives result 0.

Example: N = 5/8
5/8 = 1/2 +1/8 .1
1/8 = 0 x 1/4 + 1/8 .10 subtraction failed
1/8 = 1/8 + 0 . 101 STOP

2-1 = 1/2
2-2 = 1/22 = 1/4
2-3 = 1/23 = 1/8
1-57
binary representation of a fraction
- same method

Example, M = 0.33
0.33 = 0 x 0.5 + 0.33 .0
0.33 = 1 x 0.25 + 0.08 .01
0.08 = 0 x 0.125 + 0.08 .010
0.08 = 1 x 0.0625 + 0.0175 .0101
0.0175 = 0 x 0.03125 + 0.0175 .01010
0.0175 = 1 x 0.015625 + ….. .010101
Process may not terminate.
Stop when available space filled
i.e. truncate the representation

1-58
 Representing Integers

• Unsigned integers can be represented in base

two, 4 bytes, ranges from 0 to 4294967295.
• Integers occupy 2n bytes in memory (n usually
is 1, 2 or 3).
• It is usual that the sign information is explicitly
encoded.

1-59
• Signed integers are whole numbers that can be positive or
negative, 4 bytes, ranges from
-2147483648 to 2147483647
• An integer can be coded in:
– Sign-magnitude notation
– One's complement notation
– Two’s complement notation  the most popular representation
– Excess notation  another, less popular representation, often
used for exponent values in floating point representations

1-60
Representing Integers (Internally)
Sign-magnitude

MSB carries sign 0:+ 1:-

Magnitude (= absolute value)

Sign

-6 : 1000 0000 0000 0110

6 : 0000 0000 0000 0110
1-61
Representing Integers (Internally)
Sign-magnitude

Two representations for 0:

- 0 : 1000 0000 0000 0000
+0 : 0000 0000 0000 0000
What are the maximum and the minimum values
that can fit in S/M in 2-bytes?

1-62
Representing Integers (Internally)
Sign-magnitude

What are the maximum and the minimum values

that can fit in S/M in 2-bytes?
16 bits: 1 sign bit + 15 bits for magnitude
Max magnitude: 20 + 21 + … + 214 = 215-1
= 1 + 2 + … + 16384 = 32767
maximum value = 32767
minimum value = - 32767 1-63
Representing Integers (Internally)
Complement notations
Complement notation provides another way of
representing negative numbers.
Two complement types are used frequently,
differing in how negative numbers are coded:
1's Complement
Subtract each digit of the number from (base-1)
i.e. 0 becomes 1, 1 becomes 0.
2’s Complement
Subtract each digit of the number from 1, as above
Add 1 to the result 1-64
Ranges of values that can be represented in n bits
are:
1's Complement
-2n-1 +1 to 2n-1 -1
e.g. For one byte, n=8, from -127 to +127

2’s Complement
-2n-1 to 2n-1 -1
e.g. For one byte, n=8, from -128 to +127
1-65
The 1's complement representation of a positive integer is the
same as the original binary, with MSB is set to 0
- i.e. Same as sign/magnitude representation
The 1's complement of a negative integer is obtained by
subtracting its magnitude from 2n -1 where n is the number
of bits used to store the integer in binary.
e.g. One byte, n=8, subtract from 1111 1111
-1 becomes:
1111 1111
-0000 0001
= 1111 1110

1-66
 One’s complement
example using 8 bits (1 byte)
• Has two representations of zero: 00000000 (+0) and
11111111 (-0).
• To add two numbers represented in this system, one
does a conventional binary addition, but it is then
necessary to add any resulting carry back into the
resulting sum: “end-around carry”
• e.g. add -1 and 2
11111110 + 00000010 = 00000000
with carry 1.
Add this to LSB, giving result 00000001
1-67
• One’s complement was popular in older
computers (e.g UNIVAC, PDP-1)
• The problems of multiple representations of 0
and the need for the end-around carry are
eliminated using two's complement.
• 2’s Complement of negative integer:
– Subtract each digit of its magnitude from 1
– Add 1 to the result

1-68
Representing Integers (Internally)
Two's complement notation
Representing binary numbers (here, in one byte only)
2's complement of -19
Binary code for +19 = 0001 0011
1’s complement => 1111 1111 - 0001 0011
(means flip)= 1110 1100
2's complement = 1110 1100 + 1 = 1110 1101

1-69
 Two’s Complement

The 2's complement of a positive integer is the same as the

original binary, with MSB set to 0
- i.e. Same as sign/magnitude representation
For a negative integer, begin as with 1’s complement: Subtract
each digit of the number’s magnitude from 1
Then add 1 to the result
e.g. One byte, n=8,
-1 becomes: 0000 0001 with bits complemented
= 1111 1110
& finally 1111 1111 after adding 1

1-70
1-71
 Figure 1.22 Coding the value -6
in two’s complement notation using four bits
(using an alternative algorithm)
Start with binary representation of the postive value:

1-72
Two’s Complement

There is only one zero (00000000).

Negating a number (whether negative or positive)
is done by inverting all the bits and then adding
1 to that result.
Addition of a pair of two's-complement integers
is the same as addition of a pair of unsigned
numbers (except for detection of overflow, if
that is done).

1-73
Figure 1.21 Two’s complement
notation systems

1-74
Figure 1.23 Addition problems
converted to two’s complement
notation

1-75
 Two's-complement addition
• The largest positive integer that can be stored in N bits in 2's
complement form is 2N-1 -1, whose binary bit pattern is one 0 followed
by N-1 1s
– e.g one byte, N=8,
largest +ve value = 27-1 = 127
12710 = 0111 11112

• Therefore, if two positive 2's complement integers are added and their
sum is greater than +127 an overflow will occur.

e.g. 100 + 30 : 01100100

+ 00011110
= 10000010
MSB (sign bit) indicates –ve value
1-76
Two’s-complement addition
Rule for overflow detection:
2's complement overflow occurs when the carry
into the MSB is not equal to the carry out from
the MSB. (Overflow detector circuit is used)

e.g. in previous example, one carry into MSB, but no

carry-out  overflow

e.g. 100 + 30 01100100

+ 00011110
= 10000010
.....  carries

1-77
Two’s-complement addition

second example:
e.g. -60 -68
-68 : 10111100
-60 + 11000100
= 10000000
......
one carry into MSB, but one carry-out
– no overflow: answer is -128
1-78
Excess-N representation
A value is represented by the unsigned number which is
N greater than the intended value. Thus 0 is represented
by N, and −N is represented by the all-zeros bit pattern.

e.g. with 4 bits use excess-8 [ 4th bit is 8 in binary ]

NB MSB = 0 for –ve values

1 for +ve values

1-79
Figure 1.24 An excess eight
conversion table

1-80
Figure 1.25 An excess notation system
using bit patterns of length three (excess-4)

1-81
 Representing Integers (Internally)
External data is converted into internal form, with the
aid of the programming language being used:
Using C, a programmer would:
• Select concrete type for the data (according to rules)
int, long, char, double ...
• Select a name for the data (to be able to use it):
int A ;
double F;
• Specify the value (in external notation) to be used
A = 0xFF; or A = 255;
1-82
Representing Integers (Internally)

During compilation, compiler will:

• Check for correctness, overflows, underflows
• Select the size of data (2-byte, 4 byte)
• Convert value into internal form (sign magnitude, 2's
complement, Floating point ...)
• Allocate memory and place data in memory
• Generate code to correctly manipulate data (integers in
2's complement arithmetic, floats in FP arithmetic,
etc) 1-83
Representing Integers (Internally)
Algorithm in coded form is a computer program, or
program’s code.
Translation from concepts to computer internal form is
done in several phases, and each involves coding with a
different style:
From concepts to a high level language (*)
From high level language to low level language,
From low level language to machine language,
From machine language to internal (voltage) form

(*) only this is the programmer's task.

1-84
 Terminology

Data type Veri türü

Base Taban
Representation Gösterim
Notation Yazım
Sign-Magnitude (representation) İşaret/büyüklük
(gösterimi)
One's complement 1’in tümleri
Two's complement 2’nin tümleri

1-85
 Data Compression
• Reduce amount of data needed
– For data storage
– For data transfer

• Compression Ratio
Describes ratio of original data size to
compressed size e.g. 14:1
compress
decompress

store/transfer 1-86
Lossy vs. Lossless Compression

Lossy: decompressed data is different from the

original (data is permanently lost) (JPEG,
MP3, MPEG)

Lossless: decompressed data always exactly

the same as the original (GIF, PNG, WAV,
ZIP)
Also called bit-preserving or reversible
compression

1-87
 Generic Data Compression
Techniques I
• Run-length encoding: It works by 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. e.g.
888888833333 encoded as 8[7]3[5]
• Relative encoding: It records the differences
between consecutive data units rather than
entire units; each unit is encoded in terms
of its relationship to the previous unit.

1-88
Generic Data Compression
Techiques II
• Frequency-dependent encoding: length of the
bit pattern to represent a data item inversely
related to the frequency of the item’s use
(variable length coding)
– Huffman codes: It is most commonly used to
compress text documents. It works particularly well
when characters appear multiple times within the
file that is going to be compressed.

1-89
 variable
length
coding

fixed length
coding
1-90
Adaptive Dictionary Encoding
Or “Dynamic Dictionary Encoding” e.g. Lempel-Ziv
encoding systems (LZW)
“Dictionary” is set of blocks/units from which the
message/file to compress is constructed.
• Message is encoded as a sequence of references to the
dictionary. Instead of storing the whole text as a set of
character codes (letter by letter), the compression
algorithm would allocate a code for each different word
and store the code instead of the word.
• Dictionary is allowed to change during encoding.

1-91
 LZW encoding: simplified example

• Encoding
– Message is xyx xyx xyx xyx
– Dictionary initially has 3 entries: “x” “y” “ ”
– First encode xyx as 121 – i.e. As 1st, 2nd and 1st
dictionary entries.
– Then the space, giving 1213
– Space means that preceding string xyx is recognised as
a word. Add it to dictionary as 4th entry
– Encoding proceeds, using new entry. Entire message
is encode as 121343434
1-92
 LZW encoding: simplified example

• Decoding
– Encoded message is 121343434
– Coding Dictionary initially has 3 entries: “x” “y” “ ”
– First decode 1213 as xyx with following space
– Space means that preceding string xyx is recognised as
a word. Add it to dictionary as 4th entry
– Decoding proceeds, using new dictionary entry.
– 12134 produces xyx xyx
– Entire message is decoded as xyx xyx xyx xyx
which is the original message
1-93
 Compressing Images
• GIF (graphic interchange format)
– lossless compression
– Limits colours to a pixel to only 256
– uses Dictionary Encoding
• 256 encodings stored in dictionary (the ‘palette’)
• pixel can be represented by 1 byte (referring to 1 dictionary entry)
• the colour represented is defined by 3 bytes (for Red, Green &
Blue components, RGB)
• can be made adaptive, using LZW techniques
• unsuitable for high precision photography

1-94
• JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
– encompasses several different modes
• has lossy mode but does not produce high levels of
compression,
– lossy modes are widely used
• often default compression method in digital cameras
– JPEG’s baseline standard (lossy sequential mode) has
become the standard of choice in many applications
• uses a series of lossy and lossless techniques to achieve
significant compression without noticeable loss of image quality

1-95
• JPEG baseline standard (“lossy sequential
mode”) uses a series of compression techniques
– exploits perceptual limits and simplifies colour data,
preserving luminance
• blurs the boundaries between different colours while maintaining all
brightness information
– divides image into 8x8 pixel blocks
– applies DCT-based compression (difference of
blocks)
– additional compression achieved using run-length
encoding, relative encoding and variable length
encoding
1-96
Communication Errors

• Data bits may get corrupted in transfer or

retreival from storage
– Dirt/damage on disc surface
– Circuit malfunctions
– Static electricity on transmission path
may cause data to be incorrectly recorded
or read.
• Encoding techniques have been developed to
detect errors, and even to correct them
1-97
 Parity Bits
• Parity : oddness or evenness
• If each bit pattern is adjusted to have an odd (or
even) number of 1s then a pattern with and even
(odd) number must contain an error
• Example: odd parity
– Add an extra bit – the Parity bit – to each pattern
– If pattern has odd number of 1s, parity bit = 0
– If pattern has even number of 1s, parity bit = 1

1-98
Figure 1.28 The ASCII codes for the
letters A and F adjusted for odd parity

1-99
 Error-Correcting Codes
• Error-Correcting Codes are the codes that allow
the reciver of a message to detect errors in the
message and to correct them.
• The Hamming Distance between two patterns
of bits is the number of bits in which the
patterns differ
– e.g. distance between 010101 & 011100 is 2
– or, distance between 11100111 & 11011011 is 4
[ XOR the bits then sum bits in the result ]

1-100
Error-correcting codes

How Hamming distance is used to produce an

error-correcting code?
• By designing a code in which each pattern
has a Hamming distance of n from any
other pattern, patterns with fewer than n/2
errors can be corrected by replacing them
with the code pattern that is closest.

1-101
Figure 1.29 An error-correcting code

If one bit is changed

in a code it will not
be in the list (i.e. will
not be a legal code)
and so the error is
recognised

1-102
Hamming distances for given code

A B C D E F G H
000000 A 4 3 3 3 3 4 4
001111 B 3 3 3 3 4 4
010011 C 4 4 4 3 3
011100 D 4 4 3 3
100110 E 4 3 3
101001 F 3 3
110101 G 4
111010 H

Hamming distance between any two legal patterns is at

least 3.
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When the Hamming distance between any two
patterns in the code is 3 then:
•Changing 1 bit in a pattern will mean it is still
closer to its original pattern than any other
(distance = 1)
•And its distance from any other pattern in the
code will be at least 2
•Hence we can reasonably deduce which is the
original pattern

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Decoding the received pattern 010100

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 Error-correcting codes

• Used in (high capacity) magnetic disk drives

– Reduce possible flaws corrupting data
• Used in CDs for data storage
– CD-DA format (for audio) reduced data errors to
one error two discs (1/2)
– CD for data storage have errors at 1/20000

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