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Octal: Difference between revisions
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→Uses: Reference to PDP-11
(New page: Category:EncyclopediaOctal is a counting system that uses eight digits. Instead of using only 0's and 1's like binary, or the characters '0' to '9' of the decimal number system; octal...) |
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== Uses ==
The octal number system was used widely in the Electronics and Computer Industry, as although digital electronics is based on gates with only two states and is therefore fundamentally binary, binary numbers can quickly become long and hard to transcribe without errors. Their octal equivalents are much shorter and easier to remember, and have a straight-forward way of conversion to/from binary.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pdp-11 PDP-11] of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Equipment_Corporation DEC] used exclusively octal numeric system for memory addresses and content.
The use of octal numbers has declined as most modern computers no longer base their word length on multiples of three bits, (they are based on multiples of four bits).
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