[3.0] Data Types

Data must be represented in a form that a _____________

• A human can easily interpret at all times

• A computer’s internal processing can work with

• Matches the structure of an external storage device

• Is identical across all programming languages

Answer explanation

External data must be transformed into an internal format and delivered to the brain's /computer's processing "circuitry" to enable processing.

How do computer systems represent and process data?

• By storing it in human-readable formats such as plain text and images

• By converting it into high-level programming languages for direct execution

• By representing it in binary form and using logic circuits to process it

• By interpreting it directly from external devices without conversion

Answer explanation

Computer systems represent data electrically and process it with electrical switches with 2 states (on/off).

A computer deals with all sorts of non-numeric data (e.g. strings, images videos). How are they represented in the computer?

• By storing them as pre-defined templates for each type of data

• By converting them into graphical or textual representations for processing

• By keeping them in their original external formats and interpreting them directly

• They are represented by a set of numeric values, typically binary form, using standardized formats.

Answer explanation

For example, the color of pixels in an image are represented numerically. These are converted into binary and then stored in standardized image formats. All this is stored in the memory as a stream of 1s and 0s.

What is the correct order of how data is represented?

• On/off switches -> processing circuits -> processing subsystems -> CPUs

• Processing circuits -> CPUs -> On/off switches -> Processing subsystems

• CPUs -> Processing circuits -> Processing subsystems -> On/off switches

• On/off switches -> CPUs -> Processing circuits -> Processing subsystems

Answer explanation

On/Off switches - control electric flow, represent binary data as 1 or 0

Processing circuits - uses the logic gates for operation

Processing subsystems - circuits that handle arithmetic or memory access

CPU - central unit for I/O, memory, and processing subsystems

Why do computers use binary (base 2)?

• Because it can be represented by electrical signals in two states, corresponding to true or false, and is easily processed by two-state devices.

• Because it allows computers to store data in decimal format for human readability.

• Because is the only number system computers understand due to limitations in software development.

• Because it is faster to process than any other number system, reducing the need for optimization.

How do modern computers represent larger numeric values, considering they use binary digits internally?

• Larger numeric values are always represented with simple binary bit strings

• Binary digits are only used for small numeric values, and larger values are stored in hexadecimal

• Larger numeric values are represented with base-10 (decimal) to improve processing speed

• Larger numeric values are typically represented using non-positional bit structures or specialized encoding methods

Answer explanation

While positional numbering systems are convenient for humans, they aren't suited with a computer. Other encoding methods that exist include two's complement or floating-point representation.

Any representation format for numeric data represents a balance among several factors. What are these factors?

• Memory cost, processing speed, ease of implementation, power consumption

• Data size, range, speed of retrieval, number of operations required

• Data size, range, accuracy, ease of manipulation, standardization

• Number of bits, software compatibility, network transfer rate, error correction

Its/their goal is to minimize the storage space required for data and provide a range to represent values for a given application.

• Standardization

• Ease of Manipulation

• Data Size

• Accuracy

• Range

Answer explanation

these are the number of bits used to represent a value, directly affecting the range of values that can be represented

smaller size = smaller range

Its/their goal is to maintain precision in representing data, especially for computations

• Standardization

• Ease of Manipulation

• Data Size

• Accuracy

• Range

Answer explanation

The accuracy increases w/ the number of data bits used.

More bits = less error = more space consumed

Its/their goal is to simplify data processing and computations (i.e., determining the number of bits to be used and the largest value that can be represented)

• Standardization

• Ease of Manipulation

• Data Size

• Accuracy

• Range

Answer explanation

This mostly refers to processor operations such as addition, subtraction, comparison.

It involves how one represents values, which has an effect on the complexity of the circuit needed to do operations (e.g., simple binary needs less logic, complex formats may need more complex logic and circuity).