What is the binary number system, and what role does it play in a computer system?
The binary number system uses only two digits, 0 and 1. It is also referred to as the base 2 number system. It is used instead of the base 10 number system to manipulate the on/off switches that control the computer’s actions. Even with just two digits, the binary number system can still represent all the same values that a base 10 number system can. To provide a consistent means for representing letters and other characters, codes dictate how to represent characters in binary format. The ASCII code uses 8 bits (0s and 1s) to represent 255 characters. Unicode uses 16 bits of data for each character and can represent more than 65,000 character symbols. 3. What is inside the CPU, and how do these components operate? The CPU executes every instruction given to your computer. CPUs are differentiated by their processing power (how many transistors are on the microprocessor chip), how quickly the processor can work (called clock speed), and the amount of immediate access memory the CPU has (
