Electroenthusiast
Active Member
Hi everyone,
Okay, i know computer has no fingers, so it uses binary. That's ok. But i'm really not understanding this. This may be simple, but i think i'm thinking in a bit complicated way/wrong way. Please correct me if i'm wrong.
I'm getting confused with binary system... really!
So here's what i like to ask:
Consider this,
To represent 0,1,2,3... the computer(not just PC) uses this
00 = off, off = 0
01 = off, on = 1
10 = on, off = 2
11 = on, on = 3
so to represent 0,1,2,3 we require '2 bits' of memory, but people say the memory used is 2^2=4 bits.
Similarly,
000 = off,off,off = 0
001 = off,off,on = 1
010 = off,on,off = 2
011 = off,on,on = 3
100 = on,off,off = 4
101 = on,off,on = 5
110 = on,on,off = 6
111 = on,on,on = 7
Here we use 3 bits to represent, but they say memory used is 2^3 = 8 bits. It continues like this and we end up getting everything in powers of two.
I'm confused with this. I've searched enough on internet, but haven't understood why is it so, i mean memory stick, RAM, ROM, etc... = 128,256,....1GB,2GB,4GB,8GB....
My point here is: As above, it requires 2bits / 3 bits to represent the above numbers respectively. And so, the memory required is 2/3 bits IMO. But why/how exactly 'power of 2' comes into act?
Okay, i know computer has no fingers, so it uses binary. That's ok. But i'm really not understanding this. This may be simple, but i think i'm thinking in a bit complicated way/wrong way. Please correct me if i'm wrong.
I'm getting confused with binary system... really!
So here's what i like to ask:
Consider this,
To represent 0,1,2,3... the computer(not just PC) uses this
00 = off, off = 0
01 = off, on = 1
10 = on, off = 2
11 = on, on = 3
so to represent 0,1,2,3 we require '2 bits' of memory, but people say the memory used is 2^2=4 bits.
Similarly,
000 = off,off,off = 0
001 = off,off,on = 1
010 = off,on,off = 2
011 = off,on,on = 3
100 = on,off,off = 4
101 = on,off,on = 5
110 = on,on,off = 6
111 = on,on,on = 7
Here we use 3 bits to represent, but they say memory used is 2^3 = 8 bits. It continues like this and we end up getting everything in powers of two.
I'm confused with this. I've searched enough on internet, but haven't understood why is it so, i mean memory stick, RAM, ROM, etc... = 128,256,....1GB,2GB,4GB,8GB....
My point here is: As above, it requires 2bits / 3 bits to represent the above numbers respectively. And so, the memory required is 2/3 bits IMO. But why/how exactly 'power of 2' comes into act?