Data Representation and Assembly Language Programming The ANT-97 Architecture

Abstract

In order to understand how a computer is able to manipulate data and perform computations, you must first understand how data is represented by a computer. At the lowest level, the invisible unit of data in a computer is a bit. A bit represents a single binary value, which may be either 1 or 0. In different contexts, a bit value of 1 and 0 may also be referred to as "true" and "false", "yes" and "no", "high" and "low", "set" and "not set", or "on" and "off". The decision to use binary values, rather than something larger (such as decimal values) was not purely arbitrary--it is due in a large part to the relative simplicity of building electronic devices that can manipulate binary values.