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Back to FlashcardsInformation Technology / A Level Computer Science Paper 1: 1.4.1 Data Types - Character Sets

A Level Computer Science Paper 1: 1.4.1 Data Types - Character Sets

Information Technology13 CardsCreated 10 months ago

This flashcard set explains how digital signals work through binary switches, how bits represent data, how to calculate value combinations using bits, and introduces the concept of a byte as 8 bits, including the importance of leading zeros in binary representation.

Report

How signals work

Transferred by switches which open and close
A closed switch conducts electricity and has a value of 1
A bit is representative of a switch

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Key Terms

Term
Definition

How signals work

Transferred by switches which open and close
A closed switch conducts electricity and has a value of 1
A bit is re...

How many combinations of values can a computer produce for n bits

2^n

Byte

A collection of 8 bits

Write leading 0s if you represent a value in a byte

kB

Kilobyte

1000 (1 x 10^3) bytes

MB

Megabyte

1 x 10^6 bytes

GB

Gigabyte

1 x 10^9 bytes

Related Flashcard Decks

TermDefinition

How signals work

Transferred by switches which open and close
A closed switch conducts electricity and has a value of 1
A bit is representative of a switch

How many combinations of values can a computer produce for n bits

2^n

Byte

A collection of 8 bits

Write leading 0s if you represent a value in a byte

kB

Kilobyte

1000 (1 x 10^3) bytes

MB

Megabyte

1 x 10^6 bytes

GB

Gigabyte

1 x 10^9 bytes

TB

Terabyte

1 x 10^12 bytes

KiB

Kibibyte

2^10 (1024) bytes

MiB

Mibibyte

2^20 bytes

GiB

Gibibyte

2^30 bytes

TiB

Tibibyte

2^40 bytes

ASCII

Standardised binary values for symbols
7 bits (128 values), 32 upwards for each symbol on a keyboard
Later increased to 8 bits (extended ASCII)

Unicode

Made to standardise encoding characters in all languages
16/32 bits
+ every character in every language can be represented
- it requires more storage to be used