Computer Organisation

Data Representation

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Definitions
• Data refers to the symbols that represent people,
events, things, and ideas. Data can be a name, a
number, the colours in a photograph, or the notes in
a musical composition.
• Data representation: refers to the form in which data
is stored, processed, and transmitted.
• Devices such as smartphones, laptops iPods, and any
other computer store data in digital formats that can
be handled by electronic circuitry.
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Definitions
• Digital is a signal represented in one of the two (2)
distinct states, of either 0 or 1, as is the case in binary
system.
• Analogue is a signal with a value that varies smoothly
(continuous wave). Examples of such a signal is a
human speech, dimmer light which has a rotating dial
to control a continuous range of brightness.

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Analogue and Digital converters
• An Analogue to Digital Converter (ADC) is a device
that converts a smooth continuous signal such as a
wave signal into a digital number that is represented
by 0s and 1s. Example of ADC is a sound card.
• Digital to Analogue Converter (DAC) is a device
converts from digital to analogue signal and are found
in CD players, MP3 players, MODEM, Routers and so
on.

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Data Representation
• Digitization: is the process of converting data, such as
text, numbers, photos, or music into digital data that
can be manipulated by electronic devices such as a
computer.
• The Digital Revolution has evolved through four (4)
phases, beginning with big, expensive standalone
computers, and processing to today’s digital world in
which small, inexpensive digital devices are
everywhere.
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Data Representation
• The 0s and 1s used to represent data are refered to as
binary digits – from this term, we get the word bit
that stands for binary digit.
• A bit is a 0 or 1 used in the digital representation of
data.
• A digital file, usually referred to as file, is a named
collection of data that exists on a storage medium,
such as a hard disk, CD, DVD or pen drive.

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Data Representation

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Representing Numbers
• Numeric data: consists of numbers that can be used
in arithmetic operations.
• Digital devices represent numeric data using the
binary number system also called Base 2.
• The binary number system only has two digits i.e 0
and 1.
• No numeral such as 2 exists in this system. For
example, the number 2 is represented in binary as 102

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Representing Numbers
DECIMAL (BASE 10) BINARY (BASE 2)
0 0
1 1
2 10
3 11
4 100
5 101
6 110
7 111
8 1000
9 1001
10 1010
11 1011
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Representing Text
•Character data: is composed of letters,
symbols, and numerals that are not used in
calculations.
•Examples of character data include your
name, address, and so on.
•Character data is commonly referred to as
“Text”
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Representing Text
•Digital devices employ several types of
codes to represent character data, including
ASCII, Unicode, and their variants
•American Standard Code For Information
Interchange (ASCII) pronounced as ASKee,
requires seven (7) bits for each character.
•The ASCII code for uppercase A is 1000001
as an example.
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Representing Text
•Extended ASCII is superset of ASCII that uses
8 bits for each character.
•For example, Extended ASCII represents the
uppercase letter A as 01000001.
•Using eight (8) bits instead of seven (7) bits
allows Extended ASCII to provide codes for
256 characters.
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Representing Text
•Unicode: uses sixteen (16) bits and provides
codes or 65,000 characters.
•This is a bonus for representing the
alphabets of multiple languages.
•UTF-8 is a variable length coding scheme
that uses seven (7) bits for common ASCII
characters but uses sixteen (16) bit Unicode
as necessary.
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Representing Text

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Representing Text
•ASCII codes are used for numerals, such as Social
Security numbers and phone numbers.
•Plain, unformatted text is sometimes called ASCII
text and is stored in a so-called text file with a
name ending in .txt.
•On Apple devices these files are labeled “Plain
Text.” In Windows, these files are labeled “Text
Document”.
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Representing Text
•ASCII text files contain no formatting.
•To create documents with styles and formats,
formatting codes have to be embedded in the text
•Microsoft Word produces formatted text and
creates documents in DOCX format.
•Apple Pages produces documents in PAGES format.
•Adobe Acrobat produces documents in PDF format.
•HTML markup language used for Web pages
produces documents in HTML format.
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Representing Text

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Bites and Bytes
•All of the data stored and transmitted by digital
devices is encoded as bits.
•Terminology related to bits and bytes is
extensively used to describe storage capacity
and network access speed.
•The word bit, an abbreviation for binary digit,
can be further abbreviated as a lowercase b.
•A group of eight bits is called a byte and is
usually abbreviated as an uppercase B.
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Bites and Bytes
•When reading about digital devices, you’ll
frequently encounter references such as 90
kilobits per second, 1.44 megabytes, 2.8
gigahertz, and 2 terabytes.
•Kilo, mega, giga, tera, and similar terms are used
to quantify digital data

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Bites and Bytes

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Bites and Bytes
•Use bits for data rates, such as Internet
connection speeds, and movie download
speeds.
•Use bytes for file sizes and storage capacities.
•104 KB: Kilobyte (KB or Kbyte) is often used
when referring to the size of small computer
files

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Bites and Bytes
•56 Kbps: Kilobit (Kb or Kbit) can be used for
slow data rates, such as a 56 Kbps (kilobits per
second) dial-up connection.
•50 Mbps: Megabit (Mb or Mbit) is used for
faster data rates, such as a 50 Mbps (megabits
per second) Internet connection.

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Bites and Bytes
• 3.2 MB: Megabyte (MB or MByte) is typically used
when referring to the size of files containing photos
and videos.
• 100 Gbit: Gigabit (Gb or Gbit) is used for really fast
network speeds.
• 16 GB: Gigabyte (GB or GByte) is commonly used to
refer to storage capacity

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Data Compression
• To reduce file size and transmission times, digital data
can be compressed.
• Data compression refers to any technique that
recodes the data in a file so that it contains fewer bits.
• Compression is commonly referred to as “zipping.”

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Data Compression
• Compression techniques divided into two categories:
lossless and lossy
• Lossless compression provides a way to compress
data and reconstitute it into its original state;
uncompressed data stays exactly the same as the
original data
• Lossy compression throws away some of the original
data during the compression process; uncompressed
data is not exactly the same as the original

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Data Compression
• Software for compressing data is sometimes referred
to as a compression utility or a zip tool.
• On laptops and desktop computers, the compression
utility is accessed from the same screen used to
manage files.

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Data Compression

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Data Compression
• The process of reconstituting files is called extracting or unzipping.
• Compressed files may end with a .zip, .gz, .pkg, or.tar.gz

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