Digital Design:

Number Systems

Credits:
Slides adapted from:
J.F. Wakerly, Digital Design, 4/e, Prentice Hall, 2006
C.H. Roth, Fundamentals of Logic Design, 5/e, Thomson, 2004

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 Positional Number Systems

 A number is represented by a string of digits, where each

digit position has an associated weight and it has the
following form:

dp-1dp-2  d1d0 . d-1d-2  d-n

 The value of the number is given by:

p -1
D   di  r i
i - n 2
 Binary Numbers

 The general form of a binary number of p+n binary digits

(bits) is:

bp-1bp-2  b1b0 . b-1b-2  b-n

 and its value is:

p -1
B b  2
i - n
i
i

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 Octal and Hexadecimal Numbers

 The octal number system uses

radix 8, while the hexadecimal
number system uses radix 16
 The octal and hex number systems
are useful for representing multibit
numbers

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 Conversion from Binary to Decimal

p -1
 Method: summation B i
b 
i - n
2 i

Example:
101110110012 = 1  210 + 0  29 + 1  28 + 1  27 + 1  26 + 0  25 +
1  24 + 1  23 + 0  22 + 0  21 + 1  20 = 149710

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 Conversion from Decimal to Binary

 Method: successive divisions

Example:

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EXAMPLE: convert 5310 to binary

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EXAMPLE: convert .625ten to binary

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EXAMPLE: convert 0.710 to binary.

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EXAMPLE: convert 231.34 to base 7.

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 Addition of Binary Numbers

EXAMPLE: Add 1310 and 1110 in binary.

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Subtraction of Binary Numbers
EXAMPLES:

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 Representation of Negative Numbers

 Signed-Magnitude Representation
+10ten -10ten
001010two 101010two

 The number zero has two representations (+0 and -0)

 An n-bit signed-magnitude number lies within the range
-(2n-1 - 1) through +(2n-1 - 1)
 To add signed-magnitude numbers we must examine the signs of
the addends to determine what to do …

 Radix Complement Representation

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 Diminished Radix Complement Representation
 Representing Numbers ????
 Key observation:
Numbers are just strings of symbols. The meaning (value) we
assign to each string instance (pattern) is up to us. If the string is n
symbols (digits) long and each symbol can take up to different r
instances (radix) then we can form rn different patterns.

 “Common sense” characteristics of a system number:

 Assign a different value to each different pattern
 Split the patterns equally between positive numbers and
negative numbers
 The mechanic of doing arithmetic operations should be as
“simple’ as possible 14
 Complement Number Systems
 While the signed-magnitude system negate a number by
changing its sign, a complement number system negates a
number by taking its complement.

 Radix-complement Representation
The complement of an n-digit number D is obtained by
subtracting it from rn

rn – D = ((rn-1)-D) + 1

 Diminished Radix-complement Representation

In a diminished radix-complement system the complement
of an n-digit number D is obtained by subtracting it from rn-1
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Complement Number Systems

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Complement Number Systems

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 Complement Number Systems
 Once we know how to compute the diminished-radix
complement of a number, computing the radix-complement
is very simple:

radix complement = diminished-radix complement + 1

0
9 1
8 2
7 3

6 4 18
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 C2 Number System

 For binary numbers, the radix complement is called two’s

complement (C2).
 The MSB of a number in this system serves as the sign bit.
 Negative numbers have MSB equal to 1
 Positive numbers have MSB equal to 0
 The range of representable numbers is:
–(2n-1) through +(2n-1-1)
 Zero has only one representation

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 Two’s Complement Number System

 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 
0
-1 1
0000
1111 0001 2
-2
1110 0010
-3 3
1101 0011

-4 4
1100 0100

5
1011 0101
-5
1010 0110
-6 1001 6
1000 0111 20
-7 -8 7
 C1 Number System

 For binary numbers, the diminished-radix complement is

called one’s complement (C1).
 The MSB of a number in this system serves as the sign bit.
 Negative numbers have MSB equal to 1
 Positive numbers have MSB equal to 0
 The range of representable numbers is:
–(2n-1-1) through +(2n-1-1)
 Zero has two representations: positive zero (00  00) and
negative zero (11  11)
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Summary of Signed Number Systems

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 C1 Number System
 In the C1 number system to negate an n-bit number all we
have do is to flip (invert) all the bits

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 C2 Number System

 In the C2 number system to negate an n-bit number

requires two steps:
 invert all bits of the number (i.e. take
the C1 of the number) and then
 add 1

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 “Playing” with the C2 notation

 The sum of a number and its inverted representation must be

111….111two, which in C2 represent –1

X + X  -1  X + 1  -X  X + X + 1  0

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C2 EXAMPLES

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 C2 sign extension

 As far as m > n, it is possible to convert n-bit numbers into m-

bit numbers, but some care is needed :
 copy the most significant bit (the sign bit) into the other bits
0010  0000 0010
1010  1111 1010
 This procedure is referred as "sign extension"

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 C2 Addition and Subtraction

1. Addition of 2 positive numbers, sum < 2n –1.

2. Addition of 2 positive numbers, sum ≥ 2n –1

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 C2 Addition and Subtraction

3. Addition of positive and negative numbers

(negative number has greater magnitude).

4. Addition of positive and negative numbers

(positive number has greater magnitude).

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 C2 Addition and Subtraction

5. Addition of two negative numbers, |sum| ≤ 2n –1.

6. Addition of two negative numbers, | sum | > 2n –1.

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 Detecting overflow
 Overflow occurs when the value affects the sign bit:
 adding two positives yields a negative
 adding two negatives gives a positive
 subtract a negative from a positive and get a negative
 subtract a positive from a negative and get a positive
 No overflow when adding a positive and a negative number
 No overflow when subtracting two numbers of same sign

 Consider the operations A + B, and A – B

 Can overflow occur if B is 0 ? cannot occur !
 Can overflow occur if A is 0 ? can occur !
(for A-B if B=-2n-1) 31
Binary Codes for Decimal Numbers

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Gray Code

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Character Codes

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N-cubes and Hamming distance

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Traversing a 3-cube in Gray code order

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