Lesson 5 – Data Processing of Computer 41

Lesson V
Data Processing of Computer

At its most basic level, the computer is a gadget that receives input, does something with that input, and
then produces output. Figure below illustrates this concept.

Data Processing Cycle

Flow of Information in Computer System

CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT

OUTPUT DEVICE
INPUT DEVICE MEMORY

 The input device receives information and

places data in the memory.

If the instruction is not expressed in the machine language, the software translator encodes all
instruction and data into strings of 0’s and 1’s.
 During the translation and subsequent execution, the central processing unit (CPU) fetches the
instructions from the memory.
 The CPU also fetches from the memory the necessary data items and applies to them the
necessary instructions.
 The intermediate and final results are also stored in the memory.
 As the execution of the program is progressing, the results may be communicated in the outside
world via an output device.

Data Representation
 Lesson 5 – Data Processing of Computer 42

To a computer, everything is number. Numbers, letters, punctuation mark, sounds, pictures and even the
computers own instructions are represented by numbers. People normally used base-10 to present
numbers and the system is called decimal number system. (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,). In this system, each
symbol or number is called digit.

In a computer, all data must be reduced to electrical switches. A switch has only two possible states – on
and off – and it is represented by two numeric symbols: 0 (zero) for off and 1 (one) for on. Because
there are only two numeric symbols, computers are said to function in base-2, which is also known as
binary system.

Each letter, number, symbols and the rest have their own equivalent to binary as well as in
decimal form. For example, A is 01000001 in binary and 65 in decimal equivalent. The word MIGUEL
is represented by:

Binary Decimal
equivalent equivalent

M 01001101 77
I 01001001 72
G 01000111 71
U 01010101 85
E 01000101 69
L 01001100 76

Note that “MIGUEL”, using uppercase letters, is different from “miguel” using lowercase letter.

Binary Decimal
equivalent equivalent

m 01101101 109
i 01101001 105
g 01100111 103
u 01110101 117
e 01100101 101
l 01101100 108

Bits and Bytes

When referring to a computerized data, each switch - whether on or off - is called a bit. A bit is a
smallest possible unit of data. To represent a meaningful data, the computer needs a group of bits.

After a bit, the next larger unit of data is byte. A byte is a string of 8-bits, each representing a
single character. With string of 8 bits (1 byte), a computer can represent up to 256 different values –
from 0 to 255. The byte is an important unit because there are enough different eight-bit combinations to
represent all characters on the keyboard, including letters (uppercase / lowercase), numbers, punctuation
marks, and other symbols.
Text Codes
 Lesson 5 – Data Processing of Computer 43

Early in the history of computing, programmers realized the need for a standard code – a system they
could all agree on – in which numbers stood for the letters of alphabet, punctuation marks, and other
symbols. EBCDIC, Unicode, and ASCII are three of the most popular systems that were invented.

 EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code) – an 8-bit code and still used in
IBM’s mainframe and mid-range system but is rarely used personal computer.
 Unicode (Unicode Worldwide Character Standard) – a new system using 2 bytes to represent
each symbol. With 16-bits, Unicode character could be any one of more than 65,536 different
characters and symbols in the world, including that vast Chinese, Korean and Japanese character
set.
 ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) – a 7-bit code that defines 128
symbols. This system was developed by ANSI (American National Standard Institute)

Breakdown:
0-31 Control characters
32-64 Special characters and numbers
65-90 uppercase letters
91-96 Punctuation marks and symbols
97-127 lowercase letters
128-255 Different characters sets (EXTENDED ASCII)

The ASCII Table

ASCII Code Decimal Character ASCII Code Decimal Character
Equivalent Equivalent
0000 0000 0 Null 0001 0100 20 Device control 4
0000 0001 1 Star of heading 0001 0101 21 Neg,Knowledge
0000 0010 2 Star of text 0001 0110 22 Synchronous ilde
0000 0011 3 End of text 0001 0111 23 End of medium
0000 0100 4 End of transmit 0001 1000 24 Cancel
0000 0101 5 Enquiry 0001 1001 25 End of medium
0000 0110 6 Acknowledge 0001 1010 26 Substitution
0000 0111 7 Audible bell 0001 1011 27 Escape
0000 1000 8 Backspace 0001 1100 28 Figures shift
0000 1001 9 Horizontal tab 0001 1101 29 Group separator
0000 1010 10 Line feed 0001 1110 30 Record separator
0000 1011 11 Vertical tab 0001 1111 31 Unit separator
0000 1100 12 From feed 0010 0000 32 Blank space
0000 1101 13 Carriage return 0010 0001 33 !
0000 1110 14 Shift out 0010 0010 34 “
0000 1111 15 Shift in 0010 0011 35 #
0001 0000 16 Data line space 0010 0100 36 $
0001 0001 17 Device control 1 0010 0101 37 %
0001 0010 18 Device control 2 0010 0110 38 &
0001 0011 19 Device control 3 0010 0111 39 ‘
 Lesson 5 – Data Processing of Computer 44

0010 1000 40 ( 0101 0100 84 T

0010 1001 41 ) 0101 0101 85 U
0010 1010 42 * 0101 0110 86 V
0010 1011 43 + 0101 0111 87 W
0010 1100 44 , 0101 1000 88 X
0010 1101 45 - 0101 1001 89 Y
0010 1110 46 . 0101 1010 90 Z
0010 1111 47 / 0101 1011 91 [
0011 0000 48 0 0101 1100 92 \
0011 0001 49 1 0101 1101 93 ]
0011 0010 50 2 0101 1110 94 ^
0011 0011 51 3 0101 1111 95 -
0011 0100 52 4 0110 0000 96 `
0011 1010 53 5 0110 0001 97 a
0011 0110 54 6 0110 0010 98 b
0011 0111 55 7 0110 0011 99 c
0011 1000 56 8 0110 0100 100 d
0011 1001 57 9 0110 0101 101 e
0011 1010 58 : 0110 0110 102 f
0011 1011 59 ; 0110 0111 103 g
0011 1100 60 < 0110 1000 104 h
0011 1101 61 = 0110 1001 105 i
0011 1110 62 > 0110 1010 106 j
0011 1111 63 ? 0110 1011 107 k
0100 0000 64 @ 0110 1100 108 l
0100 0001 65 A 0110 1101 109 m
0100 0010 66 B 0110 1110 110 n
0100 0011 67 C 0110 1111 111 o
0100 0100 68 D 0111 0000 112 p
0100 0101 69 E 0111 0001 113 q
0100 0110 70 F 0111 0010 114 r
0100 0111 71 G 0111 0011 115 s
0100 1000 72 H 0111 0100 116 t
0100 1001 73 I 0111 0101 117 u
0100 1010 74 J 0111 0110 118 v
0100 1011 75 K 0111 0111 119 w
0100 1100 76 L 0111 1000 120 x
0100 1101 77 M 0111 1001 121 y
0100 1110 78 N 0111 1010 122 z
0100 1111 79 O 0111 1011 123 {
0101 0000 80 P 0111 1100 124 |
0101 0001 81 Q 0111 1101 125 }
0101 0010 82 R 0111 1110 126 ~
0101 0011 83 S 0111 1111 127 {space}
 Lesson 5 – Data Processing of Computer 45

Extended ASCII Code

Lesson V: Exercise 1

Name: _____________________________________________ Rating: ________________

Date: ________________________ Section: ___________________ Score: ____________

Write your first name and last name downward in the boxes provided.
Using the ASCII table, write the binary equivalent of every letter of your name including spaces.

First name Binary equivalent Last name Binary equivalent