CH:2 Encoding Schemes and Number systems

Objective: Encoding schemes-

American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII)
UNICODE,
Indian Script Code for Information Interchange (ISCII)
Number SYstems-
Decimal,
Binary,
Octal and
Hexadecimal number system and
converting a number from a number system to
another including its fractional part.

Introduction:

● Computer understands only binary language of 0s and 1s. Therefore,

when a key on the keyboard is pressed, it’s internally mapped to a
unique code, which is further converted to binary.
EX: When the key ‘A’ is pressed it is internally mapped to a decimal
value 65 (code value), which is then converted to its equivalent binary
value for the computer to understand.

● The mechanism of converting data into an equivalent cipher using

specific code is called encoding.
Encoding Schemes:

● The standard encoding schemes where each letter, numeral and

symbol is encoded or assigned a unique code are as follows:

i)American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII)

ii)UNICODE,
iii) Indian Script Code for Information Interchange (ISCII)

i) American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII):

➔ Encoding scheme ASCII was developed for standardising the
character representation.
➔ ASCII is still the most commonly used coding scheme.
➔ ASCII used 7 bits to represent characters.
➔ Total number of different characters on the English keyboard that can
be encoded by 7-bit ASCII code is 27 = 128.(i.e AsComuter uses only
two binary digits ‘0’ and ‘1’ so, it is 27.)
➔ ASCII is able to encode character set of English language only.
➔ The below table shows ASCII code for some characters characters:

EX: ASCII value of A is 65 and its equivalent 7-bit binary

code = 1000001

ii) Indian Script Code for Information Interchange(ISCII):

 ➔ ISCII is a coding technique used to represent several Indian writing
systems. It encodes the primary Indian scripts as well as a Roman
transcription.
➔ It is an 8-bit code representation for Indian languages which means it
can represent 28=256 characters.
➔ The first 128 characters, numbered 0-127, are the same as in ASCII.
iii)UNICODE:
➔ Text created using one encoding scheme was not recognised by
another machine using different encoding scheme. So, a standard
code called UNICODE has been developed to incorporate all the
characters of every written language of the world.
➔ UNICODE provides a unique number for every character, irrespective
of device (server, desktop, mobile), operating system (Linux,
Windows, iOS) or software application (different browsers, text
editors, etc.).
➔ It is a superset of ASCII, and the values 0–128 have the same
character as in ASCII. Unicode characters for Devanagari script is
shown in below Table:

NUMBER SYSTEMS:
➔ In Digital Computer, data and instructions are stored in computer memory
using binary code (or machine code) represented by Binary digit’s 1 and 0
called BIT’s.
➔ Number systems are basically classified into two types.
They are:
i) Non-positional number system
ii) Positional number system
i) Non-Positional Number System :
➔ It consists of different symbols that are used to represent
numbers.
➔ Roman number system is an example of the non-positional number
system i.e. I=1, V=5, X=10, L=50.
➔ This number system cannot be used effectively to perform arithmetic
operations.

ii)Positional Number System

➔ This type of number system are: o
a) Decimal number system
b) Binary number system
c) Octal number system
d) Hexadecimal number system
➔ The total number of digits present in any number system is called its Base
or Radix.
➔ Every number is represented by a base (or radix) x, which represents x
digits.
➔ The base is written after the number as subscript such as 512 (10).
➔ It is a Decimal number as its base.
➔ To determine the quantity that the number represents, the number is
multiplied by an integer power of x depending on the position it is located
and then finds the sum of the weighted digits.
➔ Example: Consider a decimal number 512.45(10) which can be represented
in equivalent value as:

a) Decimal Number System:

➔ It is the most widely used number system.
➔ The decimal number system consists of 10 digits from 0 to 9.
➔ It has 10 digits and hence its base or radix is 10.
➔ These digits can be used to represent any numeric value.
EX:
b) Binary Number System :
➔ Digital computer represents all kinds of data and information in the
binary system.
➔ Binary number system consists of two digits 0 (low voltage) and 1
(high voltage).
➔ Its base or radix is 2.
➔ Each digit or bit in binary number system can be 0 or 1.
➔ The positional values are expressed in power of 2.
➔ Below Table shows Binary equivalent no for decimal no’s from 0 to 9.

EX:

c) Octal Number System :

 ➔ The octal number system has digits starting from 0 to 7.
➔ The base or radix of this system is 8.
➔ The positional values are expressed in power of 8.
➔ Any digit in this system is always less than 8.
➔ The below table shows the octal and decimal equivalent of a number
from 0 to 7.

EX:

d) Hexadecimal Number System :

➔ The hexadecimal number system consists of 16 digits from 0 to 9
and A to F.
➔ The letters A to F represent decimal numbers from 10 to 15.
➔ That is, ‘A’ represents 10, ‘B’ represents 11, ‘C’ represents 12, ‘D’
represents 13, ‘E’ represents 14 and ‘F’ represents 15.
➔ The base or radix of this number system is 16.
➔ The below table shows equivalent Hexa Decimal system for the
decimal numbers.

EX: