Bits and Bytes: Number of Bits Different Patterns

8/8/2020 Bits and Bytes
Bits and Bytes

At the smallest scale in the computer, information is stored as bits and bytes. In this
section, we'll learn how bits and bytes encode information.
Bit
a "bit" is atomic: the smallest unit of storage
A bit stores just a 0 or 1
"In the computer it's all 0's and 1's" ... bits
Anything with two separate states can store 1 bit
In a chip: electric charge = 0/1
In a hard drive: spots of North/South magnetism = 0/1
A bit is too small to be much use
Group 8 bits together to make 1 byte
Everything in a computer is 0's and 1's. The bit stores just a 0 or 1: it's the smallest
building block of storage.
Byte
One byte = collection of 8 bits
e.g. 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0
One byte can store one character, e.g. 'A' or 'x' or '$'
How Many Patterns With N Bits? (demo)

How many different patterns can be made with 1, 2, or 3 bits?
Number of bits Different Patterns
1 01
2 00 01 10 11
000 001 010 011

3
100 101 110 111
3 bits vs. 2 bits

https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs101/bits-bytes.html 1/5
Consider just the leftmost bit

It can only be 0 or 1
Leftmost bit is 0, then append 2-bit patterns
Leftmost bit is 1, then append 2-bit patterns again
3-bits has twice as many patterns as 2-bits
Number of bits Different Patterns
1 01
2 00 01 10 11
000 001 010 011

3
100 101 110 111
In general: add 1 bit, double the number of patterns

1 bit - 2 patterns
2 bits - 4
3 bits - 8
4 bits - 16
5 bits - 32
6 bits - 64
7 bits - 128
8 bits - 256 - one byte
Mathematically: n bits yields 2n patterns (2 to the nth power)
One Byte - 256 Patterns (demo)

1 byte is group of 8 bits
8 bits can make 256 different patterns
How to use the 256 patterns?
How to store a number in a byte?
Start with 0, go up, one pattern per number, until run out of
patterns
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ... 254, 255
One byte can hold a number between 0 and 255
i.e. with 256 different patterns, we can store a number in the

range 0..255
Really good for storing characters/letters.
Bytes
"Byte" - unit of information storage
A document, an image, a movie .. how many bytes?
1 byte is enough to hold about 1 typed character, e.g. 'b' or 'X' or
'$'
All storage is measured in bytes, despite being very different
hardware
Kilobyte, KB, about 1 thousand bytes
Megabyte, MB, about 1 million bytes
Gigabyte, GB, about 1 billion bytes
Terabyte, TB, about 1 trillion bytes (rare)
Bytes and Characters - ASCII Code

ASCII is an encoding representing each typed character by a
number
Each number is stored in one byte (so the number is in 0..255)
A is 65
B is 66
a is 96
space is 32
"Unicode" is an encoding for mandarin, greek, arabic, etc.
languages, typically 2-bytes per "character"
32 space 65 A 97 a
33 ! 66 B 98 b
34 " 67 C 99 c
35 # 68 D 100 d
36 $ 69 E 101 e
37 % 70 F 102 f
38 & 71 G 103 g
39 ' 72 H 104 h
40 ( 73 I 105 i
41 ) 74 J 106 j
42 * 75 K 107 k
43 + 76 L 108 l
44 , 77 M 109 m
45 - 78 N 110 n
46 . 79 O 111 o
47 / 80 P 112 p
48 0 81 Q 113 q
49 1 82 R 114 r
50 2 83 S 115 s
51 3 84 T 116 t
52 4 85 U 117 u
53 5 86 V 118 v
54 6 87 W 119 w
55 7 88 X 120 x
56 8 89 Y 121 y
57 9 90 Z 122 z
58 : 91 [ 123 {
59 ; 92 \ 124 |
60 < 93 ] 125 }
61 = 94 ^ 126 ~
62 > 95 _
63 ? 96 `
64 @
Typing, Bytes, and You

Each letter is stored in a byte, as below
100 typed letters takes up 100 bytes
When you send, say, a text message, the numbers are sent
Text is quite compact, using few bytes, compared to images etc.
Numbers in Computers
One byte works well for individual characters, but computers are
also good at manipulating numbers.
Integers are typically stored with either 4 or 8 bytes
4 bytes can store numbers between -2147483648 and
2147483647
8 bytes can store numbers between -9223372036854775808 and
9223372036854775807
Adding in binary is just like normal addition with carrying
But when you run out of bits you can't carry anymore
Leftmost bit indicates sign, so carrying to the leftmost bit
changes a number ffrom positive to negative.
So adding 1 to 2147483647 goes to -2147483648!
Called Integer Overflow
Integer Overflow and Gangam Style
(https://arstechnica.com/business/2014/12/gangnam-style-
overflows-int_max-forces-youtube-to-go-64-bit/)

Bits and Bytes: Number of Bits Different Patterns

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Bits and Bytes: Number of Bits Different Patterns

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Bits and Bytes: Number of Bits Different Patterns

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

8/8/2020 Bits and Bytes

Bits and Bytes

How Many Patterns With N Bits? (demo)

Number of bits Different Patterns

000 001 010 011

3 bits vs. 2 bits

Consider just the leftmost bit

Number of bits Different Patterns

000 001 010 011

In general: add 1 bit, double the number of patterns

One Byte - 256 Patterns (demo)

i.e. with 256 different patterns, we can store a number in the

Bytes and Characters - ASCII Code

Typing, Bytes, and You

You might also like