ABSTRACT
Many of the technological advancements we observe today, both at domestic level and industrial applications, are due to the progress in digital electronics. Examples are laptops, cellular phones, TV broadcasting, and many processes that are now controlled by a digital computer. This chapter explains binary, hexadecimal, octal number systems, and the practical importance of all those number systems. It details bit, byte, word, least significant bit (LSB), most significant bit (MSB), overflow, flag, microprocessor, and microcontroller. The chapter explores conversion from an analog measurement to a digital number and the relationship between precision in measurement and the number of bits of digital representation of the measured value. It shows how an analog value is updated for being used in a computer-controlled device, how microprocessor control is performed in many small or large devices and equipment, and what binary-coded decimal is and what it is used for.
