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The Microcontroller Idea Book - Jan Axelson's Lakeview Research

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Number Systems<br />

This table shows the value of each character in C1h, which is the hexadecimal representation<br />

of the decimal number 193:<br />

Hex character C 1<br />

Character multiplier 16 1 16 0<br />

Character value (decimal) 192 1<br />

Binary-coded Decimal Numbers<br />

Binary-coded decimal, or BCD, is yet another way of expressing numbers. It allows easy<br />

translation of binary bits to decimal values. Chapter 10 has more on this number system.<br />

Kilobytes and Megabytes<br />

Two other popular terms for dealing with quantities in the computer world are kilobyte and<br />

Megabyte.<br />

In the metric system of measurement, kilo means 1000, but in the computer world, it<br />

commonly refers to 1024 (2 10 , or 400h in hexadecimal). So, an 8-kilobyte RAM chip actually<br />

stores 8192 bytes, not 8000. “K” is short for kilobyte: 8K equals 8 kilobytes.<br />

In an similar way, in the metric system, Mega means a million, but in the computer world,<br />

it commonly refers to 1,048,576 (2 20 , or 1000h in hexadecimal). One Megabyte equals<br />

1024 kilobytes. “M” is short for Megabyte: 8M equals 8 Megabytes.<br />

<strong>The</strong> <strong>Microcontroller</strong> <strong>Idea</strong> <strong>Book</strong> 273

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