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- ╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
- ║ Lesson 2 Part 020 F-PC 3.5 Tutorial by Jack Brown ║
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- ┌───────────────────┐
- │ What is a BYTE? │
- └───────────────────┘
-
- - The smallest piece of data that can be accessed by most
- microcomputers.
-
- - Consists of a memory unit of 8 binary bits. A binary bit is a 0 or 1)
-
- |0|1|1|1|0|1|0|1| <--- bit pattern in memory cell or byte.
- 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 <--- bit number
-
- - Bit 0 is called the low order bit, bit 7 is called the high order bit.
-
- - The bit pattern in a cell may represent:
- i) any decimal number from 0 through 255.
- ii) any hexadecimal number from $00 through $FF.
- iii) any binary number from 00000000 through 11111111
-
- - Often the byte is often used as the data structure to represent an
- ASCII character.
-
- ┌───────────────────┐
- │ What is a WORD? │
- └───────────────────┘
-
- - Consists of two bytes or 16 binary bits.
-
- - The bit pattern in a word can represent:
- i) any unsigned decimal number from 0 through 65,535
- ii) any unsigned hexadecimal number from $0000 through $FFFF
- iii) any binary number from 0000000000000000 through 1111111111111111
-
- - Often the word is used as the data structure to represent short
- integers in computer languages such as C, Pascal and Forth.
-
- - ** The numbers we place on Forth's parameter stack are words **
- ** and hence are short integers from 0 through 65,535 decimal **
-
- - 8 bit micro processors such as the 6502, 8080 use the word as a memory
- pointer into their 64K address space. Micro processors such as the
- 80x86 and 680x0 often use the word as a pointer into a 64K segment or
- array of 64K bytes.
-
- ┌───────────────────────────┐
- │ Forth's parameter stack. │
- └───────────────────────────┘
-
- All computers represent numbers internally as bit patterns of zeros and
- ones. The numbers on Forth's parameter stack are 16 bits wide and can
- be used to represent either 16-bit signed integers or 16-bit unsigned
- integers.
-
- ┌────────────────────────────────────┐
- │ Please move to Lesson 2 Part 025 │
- └────────────────────────────────────┘
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