COMPUTER ORGANIZATION

AND ARCHITECTURE

NUMBER SYSTEMS

What are Number Systems?

A number system defines a set of values to represent quantity.
The common system is the existing system based on number 10.
Today, the most common number system in use is the Arabic System.
The number systems can be categorized in 2 broad categories:
1. Non-Positional Number Systems
2. Positional Number Systems

NON-POSITIONAL NUMBER
SYSTEMS
In ancient times, people used to count on their fingers. When fingers
became insufficient for counting, stones, pebbles, or sticks were used
to indicate the values.
This method of counting is called the Non-Positional Number System.
It was difficult to perform arithmetic with such a number system as it
had no symbol for 0.
The most common non-positional number system is the Roman
Number System.
Here only a few characters are used to represent the numbers. The
characters used are I, V, X, L (for 50), C (for 100) etc.

POSITIONAL NUMBER
SYSTEMS
In positional number system the value of each digit in a number is
defined not only by the symbol but also by the symbols position.
Positional number systems have a base or radix.
The first positional number system was invented by the Babylonians.
Its base was 60.
The positional number system which is in use today is called the
Decimal Number System. This system has a base 10, which means it
contains 10 digits (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9).
The other positional number systems are the Binary Number System,
The Octal Number System and the Hexadecimal Number System each
having a base of 2, 8 and 16 respectively.
Principles applicable for the Decimal Number System are also
applicable for the others.

BASE OR RADIX OF SYSTEM

The base or radix tells the number of symbols used in the system.
Radix is always expressed in decimal numbers.
The base or radix of the decimal system is 10. This implies that there
are 10 symbols: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.
Similarly the system using 3 symbols 0, 1, 2 will be of base 3; four
symbols will be of base 4, and so on.
Modern day computers use the radix 2 because they recognize only 2
symbols, which are represented in digital circuits as 0s and 1s.
The base of a number system is indicated by a subscript( decimal
number). For example: (34)10, (214)8, (123)16 , (1101101)2 etc.

TYPES OF NUMBER SYSTEMS

Number
System

Radix
Value

Set of Digits

Example

Decimal

10

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

(25)10

Binary

0, 1

(11010)2

Octal

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

(45)8

Hexadecimal

16

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C,
D, E, F

(19)16

DECIMAL NUMBER SYSTEM

This primary number system has a base of 10.

We use this system everyday while counting.
The name is derived from the Latin word Decem, which means 10.
This number system includes ten digits from 0 through 9.
These digits are recognized as symbols of the decimal system.
Example: (9735)10

BINARY NUMBER SYSTEM

Computers do not use 10 digits of the decimal system for counting and
arithmetic.
Their CPU and memory are made up of millions of tiny switches that
can be either in the ON or OFF states.
2 digits 0 and 1 are used to refer the two states OFF and ON
respectively. From here evolves the concept of the binary number
system.
It has a base 2 which means it uses 2 digits 0 and 1, which are
recognized as the symbols of the binary system.
27

26

25

24

23

22

21

20

2-1

2-2

128

64

32

16

.5

.25

2-3

2-4

.125 .062
5

BINARY NUMBER SYSTEM

The weighted values of each position have been represented in the
previous table.
The problem with binary is that it takes a large number of digits to
represent numerical values.
This system is not efficient in representing fractional values accurately.
It needs to be approximated.
TABLES.doc

OCTAL NUMBER SYSTEM

The Octal Number System with its 8 digits, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6 and 7 is a base-eight system.
The table below shows the weighted positional values for the octal
system up to 5 places before and after the octal point (.).
85

84

83

82

81

80

8-1

8-2

8-3

8-4

8-5

327
68

4096

512

64

0.125

0.015
625

0.001
953

0.000
244

0.0
000
31

OCTAL NUMBER SYSTEM

TABLES.doc
The octal or base 8 number system can also be used with computers.
We find that one octal digit is the equivalent of 3 binary digits.
This is also a positional number system.
Just as the decimal number system uses powers of 10 and the binary
system uses powers of 2, the octal system uses powers of 8 to
determine the digit or the symbol of the numbers position.
For example: Conversion of (225)8 to binary is (010010101)2. This was
done with reference to the Binary- Decimal- Octal Comparison table.

HEXADECIMAL NUMBER
SYSTEM
Hexadecimal is another number system that works exactly like the
decimal and binary number systems except that the base is 16.
Just as the decimal number system represents a power of 10, each
hexadecimal number represents a power of 16.
To represent the decimal numbers, this system uses numbers from 0
9 and A F characters to represent 10 to 15 respectively.
TABLES.doc
One hexadecimal digit is equivalent to 4 binary digits.
The largest hexadecimal digit F is equivalent to binary 1111. In other
words, a single hexadecimal can represent a combination of 4 bits.
Since a byte contains 8 bits, so a byte can be represented by exactly 2
hexadecimal digits. For example: 01101111 can be represented as
(6F)16.