DIGITAL NUMBER SYSTEMS

Many number systems are in use in digital technology. The most common are the decimal, binary, octal and hexadecimal systems. The decimal system is clearly the most familiar because it is a tool that we use everyday.

Decimal System
The decimal system consists of 10 numerals or symbols. These 10 symbols are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. Using these symbols as digits of a number, we can express any quantity. The decimal system, also called base-10 system, is a positional-value system in which the value of a digit depends on its position. For eg: Consider a decimal number 532. The digit 5 actually represents 5 hundreds, 3 represents 3 tens and 2 represents 2 units. Then 5 carries the most weight of the three digits, it is referred to as the most significant digit (MSD). Then 2 carries the least weight, it is referred to as the least significant digit (LSD). The decimal number 87.41 can be written as equal to 8 tens plus 7 units plus 4 tenths plus 1 hundredths. The decimal point is used to separate the integer and fractional parts of the number. The decimal position value of 87.41 as powers of 10, relative to the decimal point is,
101 100 10 1 10 2 Positional values ( weights)

8 7 . 4 1 MSD LSD

Decimal po int

Then 87.41 = (8 101) + (7 100) + (4 10-1) + (1 10-2) In general, any number is simply the sum of the products of each digit value and its positional value.

Binary System
The decimal number system does not lend itself to convenient implementation in digital systems. For eg: it is very difficult to design an electronic equitmept so that it can work with 10 different voltage levels, each one representing one decimal character, 0 through 9. For this reason, almost every digital system uses binary number system as the basic number system for its operations. In the binary or base-2 system there are only two symbols or possible digit values, 0 and 1. This base-2 number system can be used to represent any quantity that can be represented in decimal or other number systems. It will take a greater number of binary digits to express a given quantity. All the statements concerning the decimal system are equally applicable to the binary system. It is also a positional-value system, where each binary digit has itsown value or weight expressed as a power of 2. Binary position values of 1011.101 as powers of 2, relative to the binary point is, Posititional values
2 3 2 2 21 2 0 2 1 2 2 2 3

1 0 1 1 . 1 0 1

MSB Binary point LSB In the binary system the term binary digit is often abbreviated to the term, bit. The left most bit having the largest weight is the most significant bit (MSB). The right most bit having the smallest weight is the least significant bit (LSB).

Octal Number System

The octal number system has a base of 8, meaning that it has eight possible digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. Thus, each digit of an octal number can have any value from 0 to 7. The digit positions in an octal number have weights as follows.
83 82 81 8 0 . 8 1 8 2 8 3 8 4

Octal point

Hexa decimal number system

The hexadecimal number system uses base 16. Thus it has 16 possible digit symbols. It uses the digits 0 through 9 plus the letters A, B, C, D, E and F as 16 digit symbols. The hex digits A through F are equivalent to the decimal values 10 through 15. Relationships between hexadecimal, decimal and binary is shown. Hexadecimal Decimal Binary 0 0 0000 1 1 0001 2 2 0010 3 3 0011 4 4 0100 5 5 0101 6 6 0110 7 7 0111 8 8 1000 9 9 1001 A 10 1011 B 11 1010 C 12 1100 D 13 1101 E 14 1110 F 15 1111 The binary number system is the most important one in digital systems. The decimal system is important because it is universally used to represent quantities outside a digital system. There will be situations where decimal values have to be converted into binary values before they are entered into the digital system. Likewise, there will be situations where the binary values at the outputs of a digital circuit have to be converted to decimal values for presentation to the outside world. Also the octal and hexadecimal number systems are useful to provide an efficient means for representing large binary numbers. For eg: a single hexadecimal digit can be used to represent a group of 4 binary digits.