Digital Logic

Lecture 4

Binary Codes

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Computer Engineering Department
Outline
 Introduction.
 Character coding.
 Error detection codes.
 Gray code.
 Decimal coding.

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Introduction
 Binary code is a sequence of 1 and 0 to
represent specific values or quantities.
 Simply it is a substitution or a simplification
technique.
 Binary code objectives:
 Security assurance: encryption and decryption
techniques used to secure communication and
data storage.
 Civil applications: such as text coding in
computers, and codes used to reduce digital
communication errors opportunities.
 Mainly we are interested in civil applications.
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 General Rules of Binary Codes
 For n-bit binary code, the number of values that
can be codes (or simply the max number of
codes) = 2n.
 The min number of bits required to code m
values = ciel[log2m].
 The max number of bit used to code m values
can be >= min limit computed using the above
equation (i.e. there is no restrictions on the
maximum limit of the used bits).
 Each value must be assigned a unique code and
vice versa to enable correct encoding and
decoding.
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Binary Codes Types
 Character coding.
 Error detection codes.
 Gray code.
 Decimal coding.

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Character Coding -- ASCII
 ASCII stands for “American Standard Code for
Information Interchange”.
 It is a 7-bit code. So, each character is assigned a 7-
bit binary value. This value is used by the digital
systems (e.g. Computers) to correctly store and
manipulate text data.
 Originally used on non IBM systems.
 Basis of most currently used digital systems.
 Need to add an additional bit to make the code 8-bit
to be stored in a byte. Two options are provided:
 Simply add 0 in the MSB.
 Use it in even or odd-parity error detection coding as will be
seen later.

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ASCII Table

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Character Coding -- EBCDIC
 EBCDIC stands for “Extended Binary
Coded Decimal Interchange Code”.
 8-bit code.
 Originally used in IBM mainframes.
 Provide a larger set of codes than
ASCII.
 Less common than ASCII.

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Character Coding -- Unicode
 Designated as the universal code for
text coding.
 Comes to provide a large set of codes,
i.e. solve the limitations found in ASCII
and EBCDIC.
 16-bit code.
 Used in the Internet.

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Error Detection Codes I
 Data communication requires special codes and
algorithms to determine whether the received data is
the same as the one transmitted, i.e. error free.
 The simplest error detection code is based on adding
a parity bit for ASCII code.
 Parity means that two things are equal (identical).
 Simply add a 1 or 0 to the MSB in ASCII (parity) to
make the number of ones in that byte either odd
(odd parity) or even (even parity).
 Even parity is most common.
 E.g.: for 0111100 add 0 to MSB to obtain an even
parity and 1 to obtain an odd parity.

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Error Detection Codes II
 The sender and the receiver know in advance
the used parity type (odd or even).
 The sender add the parity bit to each byte
before transmission.
 The receiver checks the parity before
decoding the data. Assume that even parity is
used, if the number of ones in a byte found
to be odd, this means that there is an error in
this byte.
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Error Detection Codes III
 Disadvantages:
 Both even and odd parity can detect odd number
of error bits only. So, if two bits are in error for
example, the parity remains correct.
 Parity cannot determine the locations of the bits in
error.
 Cannot determine the number of bits in error.
 What to do when detecting an error in the
received message?
 Ask the sender to retransmit the message.
 Or use an error correction algorithm to recover
the original message.
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Gray Code
 Also, known as “The Reflected Binary Code”.
 The main idea of Gray code is that any two
subsequent codes differ in one bit only.
 Useful for error detection and correction in
digital communication systems.
 Manly used in applications that produce
values in an increasing (or decreasing) order,
i.e. similar to the counter concept.
 Gray code can be 1-bit, 2-bit, 3-bit, etc.,
based on the number of values needed to be
coded.
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3-bit Gray Code
Decimal Binary Gray Code
0 000 000
1 001 001
2 010 011
3 011 010
4 100 110
5 101 111
6 110 101
7 111 100

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Gray Code Conversion I
 The first method includes conversion in one
direction only (from binary value to Gray).
 Start from the LSB, if the next bit (in the higher
significance location) is 1 invert the current bit. If
it is 0 then do not change the current bit.
 E.g. convert 11011 to Gray code.

11011

1 0 1 1 0
Remains the same Inverted (10)
Answer = 10110 since the bit after since the bit
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is 0 after it is 1 15
Gray Code Conversion II
 The second method includes conversion in
two directions and it is based on the usage of
the XOR logical function.
 Convert one to the other as follows:
 Copy the most significant bit

 For each smaller i do G[i] = XOR(B[i+1],

B[i]) (to convert binary to Gray)

Or
 B[i] = XOR(B[i+1], G[i]) (to convert Gray

to binary)

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 Gray code binary conversion
 Ex convert 1101101 in gray code to binary
Ans.. 1001001
 Ex convert 1001001 in binary to gray code
Ans.. 1101101
Decimal Coding I
 BCD is the main example of decimal coding.
 BCD Code (Binary Coded Decimal): A code used to
represent each decimal digit of a number by a 4-Bit
Binary Value.
 Valid Digits for 0-9 are (0000 to 1001) the binary
codes 1010 to 1111 are invalid.
 So, the BCD code of each digit is the binary
conversion of that decimal digit.
 Called an 8421 Code due to the decimal weight of
each bit position.
 BCD comes to provide:
 A solution for the difficulty of the conversion between binary
and decimal.
 Easier to be understood by humans.
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Decimal Coding II
Decimal BCD
0 0000
1 0001
2 0010
3 0011
4 0100
5 0101
6 0110
7 0111
8 1000
9 1001

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Decimal Coding III
 For a compound number of decimal (multi-
digit number) the BCD of that number is
simply the substitution of the BCD code of
each digit.
 E.g. 12310  000100100011 (BCD)
 So, n digit decimal number needs 4n binary
bits to be represented in BCD.
 Pay attention to number justification when it
is in BCD. Also, note that numbers in BCD are
decimal not binary numbers.
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 Decimal Coding IV
 Note that a BCD digit needs 4 bit to be stored.
 The smallest storage unit in computer is byte
which is larger than what needed by 1 BCD
digit.
 There are two types of BCD code depending on
how to store BDC digits in a byte.
 BCD code types:
 Packed BCD: a byte can store two BCD digits. So, for
example, the number 867810 needs 2 bytes.
 Unpacked BCD: a byte can store one BCD digit in the
lower nibble while the higher nibble contains zeros.
So, for example, the number 867810 needs 4 bytes.
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Additional Notes
 This lecture covers the following
material from the textbook:
 Chapter 1: Section 1.7

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