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binary-coded decimal

vick5821

Jan 22, 2012
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Hey, I am not very clear about this term.

Abbreviated as BCD, binary-coded decimal is a format for representing decimal numbers (integers) in which each digit is represented by four bits (a nibble ). For example, the number 375 would be represented as:
0011 0111 0101
One advantage of BCD over binary representations is that there is no limit to the size of a number. To add another digit, you just need to add a new 4-bit sequence. In contrast, numbers represented in binary format are generally limited to the largest number that can be represented by 8, 16, 32 or 64 bits.

If I would to represent 375 in binary, it will be 101110111 so it is a 8 bits number ?

LOL..Still very blur about that.

Thank you
 

jackorocko

Apr 4, 2010
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101110111

Count your bits please!!! What do you think? Let me ask you this as well, why is 256 so significant in computers?
 
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vick5821

Jan 22, 2012
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why not 8 bits ?
1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1

count from right to left start with 0 and I will get 8 ?
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Jan 21, 2010
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Count along with me...

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

Was that so hard?

How many fingers do you have? 9, or 10? Do you start counting at 0 or 1?
 

vick5821

Jan 22, 2012
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I start couting at 0..isnt that ? why 1 ?RA0,RA1,RA2,RA3,RA4,RA5,RA6,RA7!!!
 

jackorocko

Apr 4, 2010
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1-9 == 0-8

It is still 9 bits. No matter how you look at it. Just because you start at zero doesn't mean you exclude zero.
 
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Sid723

Jan 28, 2010
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You start counting: 0, 1, 2, etc, when you want to know what the output is called "designation".

You start counting 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. when you just want to know how many outputs there are total. Just like a regular human being, not a computer.

Don't get confused by designations and what we humans really count.
 

jackorocko

Apr 4, 2010
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if you hold nine fingers up and start counting at zero, what do you end at?
 
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