The Journey InsideSM: Digital Information Student …

[Pages:3]I ntel? Teach Program The Jour ne y I nside

The Journey I nsideSM: Digit al I nform at ion

St udent Handout : ASCI I Com put er Code

ASCI I Com put e r Code

Com put ers work in binary code. I nform at ion is coded using 0s and 1s. Each 0 or 1 is called a bit. I n the early years of com puter developm ent, different com puter com panies applied t he binary syst em in t heir own way. The code for t he let t ers in t he word " cat " was oft en different in different brands of com puters. Event ually, a set of st andards was developed. Com put er m anufact urers agreed t o use one code called t he ASCI I ( Am erican St andard Code for I nform at ion I nt erchange) . ASCI I is an 8- bit code. That is, it uses eight bit s t o represent a let t er or a punct uat ion m ark. Eight bit s are called a byte. A binary code with eight digits, such as 1101 10112, can be stored in one byt e of com put er m em ory. The word " CAT" in a word processor becom es 0100 00112, 0100 00012, and 0101 01002. The word " cat " is 0110 00112, 0110 00012, and 0111 01002.

Each let t er, num ber, and sym bol is represent ed by an 8- bit ASCI I code. Part of t he ASCI I code is given in t his handout . Not ice t hat t here is even an ASCI I code for a blank space.

Copyright ? 2010 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

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I ntel? Teach Program The Jour ne y I nside

Act iv it ie s

1. Use t he ASCI I code t o writ e your first nam e or nicknam e in binary num bers beginning wit h an uppercase let t er and cont inuing wit h lowercase let t ers. Put t he letters of your nam e in the first colum n.

Copyright ? 2010 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

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I ntel? Teach Program The Jour ne y I nside

2. On a separat e sheet of paper, writ e a short m essage in ASCI I . Exchange m essages with a partner and decode each other's m essage.

3. The ASCI I code for a blank space is t he decim al num ber 32, or t he binary num ber 0010 00002. Why do you think it is im port ant to have a code for a blank space?

4. How m any charact ers of t ext are t here in an average book? To help answer t his quest ion, select several different books of varying lengt hs. For each book, est im at e t he num ber of charact ers of t ext . Rem em ber t o count t he punct uat ion m arks and include t he blank charact er bet ween words and sent ences. Since ASCI I is an 8- bit code and requires 8 binary num bers to represent each letter, blank space, or punct uat ion m ark, how m any binary num bers does it t ake t o represent t he t ext of an average book? ( Hint : Mult iply 8 by t he average num ber of t ext charact ers.)

Copyright ? 2010 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel, the Intel logo, the Intel Education Initiative, and the Intel Teach Program are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

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