Why computers understand only 0 and 1?

• In a modern world , Everything in the computer’s brain comes down to 0’s and 1's. You have most likely heard that this code of 0’s and 1’s is what’s referred to as Binary and while almost everybody knows that this is somehow related to what computer’s do, very few of us seem to understand what Binary is and Why computers use it.

If you want to know then you can follow this article because it’s actually a very simple concept and still fascinating. Before we get to computers, let’s talk about what Binary is.

Binary

• Binary is a system of counting that uses only two digits that is 0 and 1. Computer uses these digits to store data ,perform calculations and many more. But the question arises how computer is doing everything by only using these zeros and ones .You will understand about these clearly in further below article. So let’s start in a step wise manner.

To understand the concept in a better way, we will discuss in a stepwise manner.

Step 1:-

(1) Modern computers are based on semiconductor technology which understands low voltages and high voltages. Transistor is a semiconductor device which constitute of millions of tiny components. Transistor acts as a switch, at low voltages transistor act as an open switch and at high voltages transistor act act as an closed switch. And importantly,

Low voltages indicates 0(zero)

& High voltages indicates 1(one)

Step 2:-

(2) Every electronics device understands Signals and as Computer is an Electronics device it will easily understand signals. Every sound signals whether we are talking over phone or watching a movie has series of vibration in it.These vibration are converted into Electrical signal. Computer understands only digital signals and these digital signals consists of 0 and 1.

Step 3:-

(3) Whatever input we are giving from keyboard , Pendrive , hard disk or microphone are stored internally in the form of 0 and 1 in computer. Compiler is used to convert high level language to low level language. For example:- If we write our names in English like (Rahul) compiler will convert this English letters R A H U L to binary language means to 0’s and 1’s. We will understand this in a detailed way in step 4.

Step 4:-

(4) There is a coding system named American standard code for information interchange (ASCII) used to convert Symbols to Numbers. Whenever you want to type your name, let’s take an example:-

Just like my name is ISRAR , and I want to write my name using keyboard So in ASCII,

I is represented by Number 73 (01001001)

S is represented by Number 83 (01010011)

R is represented by Number 82 (01010010)

A is represented by Number 65 (01000001)

R is represented by Number 82 (01010010)