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A Level Computer Science Paper 1: 1.4.1 Data Types - Character Sets

Information Technology13 CardsCreated about 1 month ago

This flashcard set explains how digital signals work through binary switches, how bits represent data, how to calculate value combinations using bits, and introduces the concept of a byte as 8 bits, including the importance of leading zeros in binary representation.

How signals work

Transferred by switches which open and close
A closed switch conducts electricity and has a value of 1
A bit is representative of a switch

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Key Terms

Term
Definition

How signals work

Transferred by switches which open and close
A closed switch conducts electricity and has a value of 1
A bit is re...

How many combinations of values can a computer produce for n bits

2^n

Byte

A collection of 8 bits

Write leading 0s if you represent a value in a byte

kB

Kilobyte

1000 (1 x 10^3) bytes

MB

Megabyte

1 x 10^6 bytes

GB

Gigabyte

1 x 10^9 bytes

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TermDefinition

How signals work

Transferred by switches which open and close
A closed switch conducts electricity and has a value of 1
A bit is representative of a switch

How many combinations of values can a computer produce for n bits

2^n

Byte

A collection of 8 bits

Write leading 0s if you represent a value in a byte

kB

Kilobyte

1000 (1 x 10^3) bytes

MB

Megabyte

1 x 10^6 bytes

GB

Gigabyte

1 x 10^9 bytes

TB

Terabyte

1 x 10^12 bytes

KiB

Kibibyte

2^10 (1024) bytes

MiB

Mibibyte

2^20 bytes

GiB

Gibibyte

2^30 bytes

TiB

Tibibyte

2^40 bytes

ASCII

Standardised binary values for symbols
7 bits (128 values), 32 upwards for each symbol on a keyboard
Later increased to 8 bits (extended ASCII)

Unicode

Made to standardise encoding characters in all languages
16/32 bits
+ every character in every language can be represented
- it requires more storage to be used