http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_numeral_systemGC_PaNzerFIN wrote:
the 0 and 1 are just imagination. they could just as well have values from 0 to 100 if there was 101 different voltage levels. there are no bits or 0/1s, just voltage levels. In fact there was a time when PCs had more than 2 voltage levels, but the need of accurate measuring of voltages hit the cap in performance quite early. Its much faster to just measure if there is voltage or not.Freezer7Pro wrote:
That would just create 63 different kinds of bit. A bit can be either high or low. That is all.GC_PaNzerFIN wrote:
actually by definition it is. bit is a voltage difference.
e: of course that would not be compatible with current 0 and 1 based systems.
'bit' is an abbrevation for BInary digiT.
Binary means that only two values can be presented. 1/0, high/low, etc. If more than high and low can be measured, it is not binary anymore, and thus, cannot be measured in bits. You cannot divide a bit into 63 voltage levels. You can only have 63 different kinds of bit by using equipment that will respond to one voltage level but not the others. If you want to convert more than one level into binary, you need to do an analogue-to-digital translation.
Last edited by Freezer7Pro (2009-09-12 16:06:55)