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What is Binary?

 , May 16, 2017
Binary is data that is encoded as a series of 0s and 1s. Digital computers, the dominant form of computing hardware, can only process binary data.

Binary vs Text

Text is represented on computer hardware using a character encoding that maps binary codes to characters. For example, Utf-8 uses binary sequences of 8-bits, 16-bits, 24-bits and 32-bits to represent 128,237 characters from 135 modern and historical languages.

Binary vs Decimal

Binary is a number system that uses two symbols: 0 and 1. Decimal is the regular number system that uses the symbols 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. Decimal numbers can be represented in binary using a character set. Decimal numbers can also be represented as numerical datatypes defined by an operating system or runtime environment such as Java.

Binary vs Hexadecimal

Hexadecimal is a numbering system that uses the 16 symbols 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F. A culture of using hexadecimal exists within computer science. For example, it is common for memory addresses to be based on hexadecimal. A standard mapping exists between binary and hexadecimal that is illustrated below. Humans tend to find it easier to work with hexadecimal than binary because it's shorter by a factor of four. As such, it is common for computers to display binary as hexadecimal.

Non-binary Computers

Non-binary computers are possible and an area of active research. Circuits based on binary are easy to implement as binary can be represented as an electrical current and lack of an electrical current corresponding to true and false or 1 and 0. As such, non-binary computers require a completely different technology. Given how advanced binary technologies have become, a non-binary technology would have a lot of catching up to do to be equally advanced.
Overview: Binary
TypeComputing
Data
DefinitionData that is encoded as a series of 0s and 1s.
Related ConceptsBinary Files
Data
Character Encoding

Computing

This is the complete list of articles we have written about computing.
Abstraction
Affective Computing
Algorithms
AI
Big Data
Binary
Brute Force
Caching
Character Set
Client-Server
Coding
Coding Principles
Colocation
Compression
Computing
Computing Basics
Computing Culture
Cryptographic Keys
Cryptography
Dark Data
Data
Data Centers
Data Infrastructure
Data Integration
Data Migration
Data Processing
Data Science
Data Security
Deep Learning
Deep Magic
Digital
Edge Computing
Edit Distance
Emergence
End-User Computing
Files
Gamification
Garbage In, Garbage Out
Halt And Catch Fire
Hexadecimal
Horizontal Scale
Instance
Internet Of Things
IT Infrastructure
Job Processing
Key Stretching
Latency
Local Area Network
Machine Learning
Meet-me Room
Micro Data Center
Microcomputer
Moore's Law
Near Real-Time
Network Infra
Networking
Networks
Operating Systems
Overlay Network
Precomputation
Private IP
Private Network
Proof Of Work
Proxy Server
Qualitative Data
Random Seed
Reverse Algorithms
Reverse Proxy
Swarm Intelligence
System on a Chip
Throughput
Unstructured Data
Vertical Scale
Virtual Machine
Yobibyte
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Computing

Examples of computing in everyday life.

Delimited Text File

The common types of delimited text file.

Hexadecimal

An overview of hexadecimal as it relates to computing.

Application vs Service

The difference between application software and services.

Data Processing

A definition of data processing with examples.

Virtual Machine

The common types of virtual machine.

System on a Chip

A definition of system on a chip with examples.

Embedded System

The definition of embedded system with examples.

Real-Time

A definition of real-time with examples.

Data

An overview of data with a list of examples.

Types Of Data

The basic types of data.

Dark Data

The definition of dark data with examples.

Data Massage

The mysteries of data massage.

Data Definition

Several useful definitions of data.

Analytics

A definition of analytics with examples.

Data vs Information

The difference between data and information.

Hard Data vs Soft Data

The difference between hard data and soft data.

Human Readable

A definition of human readable.

Data Loss

The common types of data loss.
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