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Meaning of ones' complement | Babel Free

Noun CEFR B2

Definitions

  1. The number obtained by subtracting a given n-digit binary number from 2ⁿ-1 (which yields the same result as the logical complement).
  2. The convention by which bit patterns with high bit 0 represent positive numbers from 0 to 2ⁿ⁻¹-1 directly, while bit patterns with high bit 1 represent negative numbers from 0 to -(2ⁿ⁻¹-1), n being the word size of the machine, and the numeric complement of a number is its ones' complement.

Examples

“The ones' complement of 0xAAAA is 0x5555 on a 16-bit machine, and 0xFFFF5555 on a 32-bit machine.”
“Computers that use ones' complement arithmetic have two representations for zero, all 0's and all 1's.”

CEFR level

B2
Upper Intermediate
This word is part of the CEFR B2 vocabulary — upper intermediate level.

See also

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