AQA Computer Science A-Level
4.5.5 Information Coding Systems
Concise Notes
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Specification:
4.5.5.1 Character form of a decimal digit:
Differentiate between the character code representation of a decimal
digit and its pure binary representation.
4.5.5.2 ASCII and Unicode:
Describe ASCII and Unicode coding systems for coding character data
and explain why Unicode was introduced.
4.5.5.3 Error checking and correction:
Describe and explain the use of:
● parity bits
● majority voting
● checksums
● check digits
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Character form of a decimal digit
● When computers represent characters, an information coding system is used
● A character code is a decimal digit used to represent a character
ASCII and Unicode
● ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange
● ASCII and Unicode are two widely used information coding systems
● ASCII uses 7 bits and can represent 128 (= 27) different characters
● With the advent of the Internet, there was a requirement for an information coding
system that could represent character sets other than the Latin alphabet
● Unicode allows the representation of a wide variety of alphabets by computers
● Unicode uses anywhere from 8 to 48 bits (1 to 6 bytes) per character
● Unicode can represent a much wider range of different characters than ASCII
Error checking and correction
Parity bits
● A single bit added to a transmission
● This bit can be used to check for errors in the transmitted data
● The bit’s value is calculated based on the transmitted data itself
● There are two types: even parity and odd parity
● In even parity, the parity bit makes the total number of 1s in the transmitted data
even
● In odd parity, the parity bit makes the total number of 1s in the transmitted data odd
● When data is received, a parity check is carried out
● If an error is detected, the computer asks the sender to retransmit the data
● If an even number of bits are changed during transmission, the error is not detected
Majority voting
● Each bit of the data is transmitted multiple times
● When received, the most commonly occurring value is taken to be correct
● Majority voting doesn’t just detect the error but also corrects the error
● Therefore there’s no need for retransmission like when using a parity bit
● Majority voting can correct errors when multiple bits change
● The volume of data being transmitted is increased, increasing the time taken to
transmit data
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Checksums
● A value is appended to the transmitted data
● This value is determined by the data itself
● Once received, the recipient removes the checksum
● A check is carried out to ensure that the checksum matches the transmitted data
● If the two do not match, the recipient cannot correct the error itself
● In this situation, the recipient asks the sender to retransmit the data
Check digits
● A check digit is a type of checksum
● A single digit is added to the transmitted data
● This reduces the number of different algorithms that could be used to calculate the
value of the check digit
● Hence the variety of errors that the method can detect is limited
Can detect errors Can correct errors Efficiency
in transmission in transmission
Parity bit Yes
- but only if an odd No Very efficient
number of bits are
changed
Majority vote Yes Inefficient
Yes - as long as the majority - each bit is sent
of bits remain multiple times
unchanged
Checksum Mostly efficient
Yes No - a complex algorithm
could make the process
less efficient
Check digit Efficient
Yes No - the algorithms used to
calculate the check digit
are limited in complexity
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