BINARY CODES

Classification of Binary Codes

1. Numeric and Alphanumeric Codes
• Binary codes can be classified as numeric codes and
alphanumeric codes.
• Numeric codes are codes which represent numeric
information, i.e. only numbers as a series of 0s and
1s.
8421, Excess-3, Gray code are numeric codes.
• Numeric codes used to represent the decimal digits
are called Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) codes.
8421, 2421, 5211 are BCD codes.
• Alphanumeric codes are codes which represent
alphanumeric information, i.e. letters of the alphabet
and decimal numbers as a sequence of 0s and 1s.
EBCDIC code and ASCII code are alphanumeric codes.
 2. Weighted and Non-weighted
Codes
• The BCD codes may be weighted codes or non-
weighted codes.
• The weighted codes are those which obey the position-
weighting principal. Each position of the number
represents a specific weight.
• For each group of four bits, the sum of the weights of
those positions where the binary digits is 1 is equal to
the decimal digit which the group represents.
8421, 2421, 84-2-1 are weighted codes.
• Non-weighted codes are codes which are not assigned
with any weight to each digit position, i.e. each digit
position within the number is not assigned fixed value.
Excess-3 code and Gray code are non-weighted codes.
 3. Positively-weighted and
Negatively-weighted Codes
• The weighted codes may be either positively-weighted
codes or negatively-weighted codes.
• Positively-weighted codes are those in which all the
weights assigned to the binary digits are positive.
• In every positively-weighted code, the first weight must
be 1, the second weight must be either 1 or 2, and sum
of all the weights must be equal to or greater than 9.
Example: 8421, 2421, 5211, 3321, 4321 codes.
• Negatively-weighted codes are those in which some of
the weights assigned to the binary digits are negative.
Example: 642-3, 631-1, 84-2-1, 74-2-1 codes.
 4. Error Detecting and Error
Correcting Codes
• Binary codes may also be error detecting
codes or error correcting codes.
• Codes which allow only error detection are
called error detecting codes.
Shift counter code, 2-out-of-5, 63210 codes are
error detecting codes.
• Codes which allow error detection as well as
error correction are called error correcting
codes.
The Hamming code is a error correcting code.
 5. Sequential Codes
• Sequential code is one, in which each
succeeding code word is one binary
number greater than its preceding code
word.
The 8421 and Excess-3 codes are sequential.
The codes 5211, 2421 and 642-3 are not
sequential.
 6. Self-complementing Codes
• A code is said to be self-complementing, if the
code word of the 9’s complement of N, i.e. of 9-
N can be obtained from the code word of N by
interchanging all the 0s and 1s.
• Therefore, in a self-complementing code, the
code for 9 is the complement of the code for 0,
the code for 8 is the complement of the code for
1, and so on.
The 2421, 5211, 642-3, 84-2-1 and Excess-3 codes are
self-complementing codes.
The 8421 and 5421 codes are not self-complementing
codes.
 7. Cyclic Codes
• Cyclic codes are those in which each
successive code word differs from the
preceding one in only one bit position.
• They are also called unit distance codes.
The Gray code is a cyclic code.
 8. Reflective Codes
• A reflective code is a binary code in which
the n least significant bits for code words
n
2 through 2 n +1 - 1 are the mirror images
of those for 0 through 2n - 1.
The Gray code is a reflective code.
 The 8421 BCD Code
• The 8421 BCD code is so widely used that is a
common practice to refer to it simply as BCD
code.
• In this code, each decimal digit, 0 through 9, is
coded by a 4-bit binary number.
• It is also called the natural binary code because
of the 8, 4, 2 and 1 weights attached to it.
• It is a weighted code and is also sequential.
Therefore, it is useful for mathematical
operations.
• The main advantage of this code is its ease of
conversion to and from decimal.
• It is less efficient than the pure binary, in the
sense that it requires more bits.
For example, the decimal number 14 can be
represented as 1110 in pure binary but as 0001
0100 in 8421 code.
• Another disadvantage of the BCD code is that,
arithmetic operations are more complex than
they in pure binary.
 The Gray Code
• The Gray code is a non-weighted code, and is
not suitable for arithmetic operations. It is not
a BCD code.
• It is a cyclic code because successive code
words in this code differ in one bit position only,
i.e. it is a unit distance code.
• It is also reflective code, i.e. it is both reflective
and unit distance.
The n least significant bits for 2n through 2n+1 - 1
are the mirror images of the those for 0 through
2n - 1.
• Gray codes are used in instrumentation
and data acquisition systems where linear
or angular displacement is measured.
• They are also used in shaft encoders, I/O
devices, A/D converters and other
peripheral equipment.
 The ASCII Code
• The American Standard Code for Information
Interchange (ASCII) is a widely used
alphanumeric code.
• This is basically a 7-bit code. Since the number
of different bit patterns that can be created
with 7 bits is 2 = 128, the ASCII can be used to
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encode both lowercase and uppercase

characters of the alphabet (52 symbols) and
some special symbols as well, in addition to
the 10 decimal digits.
• It is used extensively for printers and terminals
that interface with small computer systems.