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binary |
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binaryMeaning two. The principle behind digital computers. All input to the computer is converted into binary numbers made up of the two digits 0 and 1 (bits). For example, when you press the "A" key on your keyboard, the keyboard circuit generates and transfers the number 01000001 to the computer's memory as a series of pulses with different voltages. The bits are stored as charged and uncharged memory cells or as microscopic magnets on disk and tape. Display screens and printers convert the binary numbers into visual characters. In decimal, when you add 9 and 1, you get 10. But, if you break down the steps, you find that by adding 9 and 1, what you get first is a result of 0 and a carry of 1. The carry of 1 is added to the digits in the next position on the left. In the following example, the carry becomes part of the answer since there are no other digits in that position.
carry--1
9
+ 1
____
10
The following example adds 1 ten times in succession. Note that the binary method has more carries than the decimal method. In binary, 1 and 1 are 0 with a carry of 1.
Binary Decimal
0 0
+ 1 + 1
____ ____
1 1
+ 1 + 1
____ ____
10 2
+ 1 + 1
____ ____
11 3
+ 1 + 1
____ ____
100 4
+ 1 + 1
____ ____
101 5
+ 1 + 1
____ ____
110 6
+ 1 + 1
____ ____
111 7
+ 1 + 1
____ ____
1000 8
+ 1 + 1
____ ____
1001 9
+ 1 + 1
____ ____
1010 10
binary 1. Maths Computing of, relating to, or expressed in binary notation or binary code 2. (of a compound or molecule) containing atoms of two different elements 3. Metallurgy (of an alloy) consisting of two components or phases 4. (of an educational system) consisting of two parallel forms of education such as the grammar school and the secondary modern in Britain 5. Maths Logic (of a relation, expression, or operation) applying to two elements of its domain; having two argument places; dyadic 6. Astronomy See binary star binary [′bīn·ə·rē] (computer science) Possessing a property for which there exists two choices or conditions, one choice excluding the other. (science and technology) Composed of or characterized by two parts or elements.
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augment and increase the performance of today's computers and potentially become the preferred computational system, either binary or non binary," Ovshinsky says. By anchoring his focus on African American men's texts, he explores, disrupts, and deconstructs the "white/black binary of signification that defines whites as normative and superior and that represents blacks as victim, as inferior, as devalued Other, or, since the 1960s, as the Same as whites. Leibniz invented the binary code, but he claimed that the Chinese had preceded him. |
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