Alegend1994 Posted April 7, 2012 Report Share Posted April 7, 2012 101011000I have a question doesn't a binary bit contain eight pieces of code while this counting code has nine pieces or is that how numbers are stored in computers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dae314 Posted April 7, 2012 Report Share Posted April 7, 2012 101010110 <- fixed again.A binary bit is a single binary digit (0, 1).A byte is 8 binary bits (represents decimal 0-255)The value 8 bits to a byte came about because of memory I think. In the beginning, memory on computers wasn't consistently byte addressable. Different computer manufacturers used different numbers of bits per memory address. 6 bits, 2 bits, 7 bits, and other combinations were all used. Eventually through whatever happened back then people all started settling on 8 bit addressable memory (byte addressable memory). So now we have the standard that exists today (8 bits to every memory address). The wikipedia page would have more information about the history than I can provide.The whole idea of memory being byte addressable seems to have happened by coincidence though. 8 bits to a byte appears to be a convenient number which is why it was chosen . However, now that memory is standardized as byte addressable, we're able to accurately say what the memory limit is on n-bit machines (64 bit, 32 bit, 16 bit, etc.) The n-bit categorization is a count of the number of address lines are on the bus. 16 address lines can reference addresses between 0000 0000 0000 0000 and 1111 1111 1111 1111 which in decimal translates to 0 to 65,355. Since each address corresponds to 1 byte, you can say that the max amount of memory available to a 16 bit machine is 64KB = 65,356 bytes. By the same math, modern 64 bit computers are able to address up to 17,179,869,184GB = 16,777,216TB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmingllama Posted April 7, 2012 Report Share Posted April 7, 2012 101010111tl;dr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boink666 Posted April 7, 2012 Report Share Posted April 7, 2012 101011000... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alegend1994 Posted April 7, 2012 Report Share Posted April 7, 2012 101011001Wow that was a lot to take in. Thanks I got the first paragraph but the second is a bit more advanced, but luckily I don't have to know that right now =)Computers are so complicated and yet they are doing this all the time right in front of me as if it was nothing, amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmingllama Posted April 7, 2012 Report Share Posted April 7, 2012 101011010Yeah, theres a whole lot of stuff involved in them. And even if you do learning, there is no way that you will understand everything in it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boink666 Posted April 7, 2012 Report Share Posted April 7, 2012 101011011I'm just wondering when we start talking about endienness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alegend1994 Posted April 8, 2012 Report Share Posted April 8, 2012 101011100@lemming: Yeah I always look at things and try to work them out and realize just how complicated they are and that it would take a life time to become a true expert in that profession, a little bit depressing that we have such a short life time to live and explore.@boink: endienness? What's that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boink666 Posted April 8, 2012 Report Share Posted April 8, 2012 101011101Endianness is the order that the bits/bytes are in. Big endian means that the first bit is the one with the highest value (that's the way that we're counting in this thread). Little endian means that the first bit is the one with the smallest value. Basically, when a binary number is stored in little endian, then it's stored in reverse. note: Generally in programming the endianness changes the order of the bytes, not the bits. So each grouping of 8 bits is left unchanged, but the order that each group appears is reversed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dae314 Posted April 8, 2012 Report Share Posted April 8, 2012 101011110I understand most of the stuff that goes on between CPU and memory although not on a per-machine basis (meaning I couldn't tell you EXACTLY how a certain machine works). However the theory I know is flexible. Stuff I don't know includes stuff like memory controllers, how the north bridge works, where Waldo is, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmingllama Posted April 8, 2012 Report Share Posted April 8, 2012 101011111If you look at a bigger picture, you also dont know how each program on said computer works... Or at a smaller scale about all the physics/chemistry behind the hardware Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dae314 Posted April 8, 2012 Report Share Posted April 8, 2012 101100000I do know how the programs get compiled and executed and how the OS handles processes and threading, but I don't know exactly how the OS is programmed. I've programmed on just about every level of abstraction that you can program on (high order languages down to microcode and even crafting logic circuits). I have a very rough idea of how the physics works, and I have a similarly rough idea of how the chips are manufactured. I also have a good grasp of computing theory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmingllama Posted April 8, 2012 Report Share Posted April 8, 2012 101100001Honestly, I just focus on the sections of the computer that I need to know about. That way then my job becomes super easy and I get to spend more time on Kametsu! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dae314 Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 101100010But then you won't be known as a guru D:. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmingllama Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 101100011I dont need to be a guru, I just need to keep being awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dae314 Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 101100100Always shoot high! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alegend1994 Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 101100101=) =) =)What kind of physics within computers are we talking about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmingllama Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 101100110Fixed counting. And there is always physics in everything, just that you have to look at it in a certain way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alegend1994 Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 101101000Sorry about my counting I still haven't got used to binary counting.What physics are we talking with computers though? Electrical, quantum... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmingllama Posted April 9, 2012 Report Share Posted April 9, 2012 101101001Any and all? Honestly I know very little about physics, but I know that somewhere in there, some kind of physics are taking place! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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