Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Hextet would more properly describe a 6-bit aggregation, whereas the exact term for 16 bits should be hexadectet, directly related to the term octet (for 8 bits). However, because it is harder to pronounce, the short form hextet is used—in analogy to how hex is commonly used as an abbreviation for hexadecimal in computing.
Hexadecimal (also known as base-16 or simply hex) is a positional numeral system that represents numbers using a radix (base) of sixteen. Unlike the decimal system representing numbers using ten symbols, hexadecimal uses sixteen distinct symbols, most often the symbols "0"–"9" to represent values 0 to 9 and "A"–"F" to represent values from ten to fifteen.
The 16-bit word length thus became more common in the 1960s, especially on minicomputer systems. Early 16-bit computers (c. 1965–70) include the IBM 1130, [3] the HP 2100, [4] the Data General Nova, [5] and the DEC PDP-11. [6] Early 16-bit microprocessors, often modeled on one of the mini platforms, began to appear in the 1970s.
For instance, using a 32-bit format, 16 bits may be used for the integer and 16 for the fraction. The eight's bit is followed by the four's bit, then the two's bit, then the one's bit. The fractional bits continue the pattern set by the integer bits. The next bit is the half's bit, then the quarter's bit, then the ⅛'s bit, and so on. For example:
Hexspeak is a novelty form of variant English spelling using the hexadecimal digits. Created by programmers as memorable magic numbers, hexspeak words can serve as a clear and unique identifier with which to mark memory or data. Hexadecimal notation represents numbers using the 16 digits 0123456789ABCDEF.
Code points less than 2 16 ("in the BMP") are encoded with a single 16-bit code unit equal to the numerical value of the code point, as in the older UCS-2. Code points greater than or equal to 2 16 ("above the BMP") are encoded using two 16-bit code units. These two 16-bit code units are chosen from the UTF-16 surrogate range 0xD800–0xDFFF ...
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
If ten bits are used to represent the value "11 1111 0001" (decimal negative 15) using two's complement, and this is sign extended to 16 bits, the new representation is "1111 1111 1111 0001". Thus, by padding the left side with ones, the negative sign and the value of the original number are maintained.