Processing Binary Data
Why does data have to be converted to binary to be processed by a computer?
- A computer is built using switches that can either be on or off, this fits the binary number system which only has two digits (1/0), which means off can be represented by a 0 and on can be represented by a 1
- This means all data must be converted to binary before a computer can understand and process it
- Converting data to binary allows computers to process it at an incredible speed, perform complex calculations and store vast amounts of data efficiently
- Examples of where you see this process is in secondary storage, in magnetic hard drives they use North and South polarity to represent a 1 or a 0 and in optical disks light is reflected back to the surface or not, 1 and 0
- Take an example of driving a car
- When driving a car the accelerator pedal is used to increase the cars speed
- If a car was accelerating from 50mph to 100mph the increase would be gradual
- In a computer system, the car is doing either 50mph (0) or 100mph (1), there is no in-between
- Trying to change the computer system so that it has more options would be less efficient and require more complex parts for the computer to understand
Worked example
Explain why computers process data in binary format [2]
Answer
- Computers consist of switches/transistors [1]
- 1 is represented as switch/transistor being on/open // 0 is represented as switch/transistor being off/closed [1]
