octal
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Related to Base-8: octal number system
octal
[′äkt·əl] (mathematics)
Pertaining to the octal number system.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
octal
(mathematics)Base 8. A number representation using the
digits 0-7 only, with the right-most digit counting ones, the
next counting multiples of 8, then 8^2 = 64, etc. For
example, octal 177 is digital 127:
digit weight value 1 8^2 = 64 1* 64 = 64 7 8^1 = 8 7* 8 = 56 7 8^0 = 1 7* 1 = 7 --- 127
Octal system used to be widespread back when many computers used 6-bit bytes, as a 6-bit byte can be conveniently written as a two-digit octal number. Since nowadays a byte is almost always 8-bit long the octal system lost most of its appeal to the hexadecimal system.
For a brief discussion on the word `octal' see hexadecimal.
digit weight value 1 8^2 = 64 1* 64 = 64 7 8^1 = 8 7* 8 = 56 7 8^0 = 1 7* 1 = 7 --- 127
Octal system used to be widespread back when many computers used 6-bit bytes, as a 6-bit byte can be conveniently written as a two-digit octal number. Since nowadays a byte is almost always 8-bit long the octal system lost most of its appeal to the hexadecimal system.
For a brief discussion on the word `octal' see hexadecimal.
This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)
octal
A numbering system that uses eight digits. It is used as a shorthand method for representing binary characters that use six-bits. Each three bits (half a character) is converted into a single octal digit. Okta is Greek for 8.Decimal Binary Octal
0 000 0
1 001 1
2 010 2
3 011 3
4 100 4
5 101 5
6 110 6
7 111 7
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