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Historical Requirements
Text was not intended for the general public.
Alphabetic characters where only in upper case
Relatively few special characters (periods,
parentheses, dollar signs, arithmetic operators)
were supplied.
10 digits, 26 letters, (less than) 20 special
character symbols (less than) 56 code patterns
were required.
6-Bit Codes
A 6-bit encoding systems permits 64 symbols to be
encoded. This was enough provided only upper case
alphabetic symbols and relatively few special
symbols were required.
IBM and Western Union (the telegraph company)
stayed with 6-bit encoding systems after most of the rest
of the computer and data transmission companies
moved to a system which permitted both upper and
lower alphabetics, and more special symbols.
Formation of ASCII
General user demand for more character symbols
(including lower case alphabetics).
IBM did not believe that the market demand was
sufficient to move from a 6-bit code
No other single company controlled a large enough
market share to be able to create a viable system on its
own.
A group of computer, peripheral, and data transmission
companies joined to establish a standard.
ASCII Basics
American Standard Code for Information Interchange
7-bit code provided unique codes for up to 128
different characters
Some terminal equipment: when idle, the power was
off (which would look like 0000000); other terminal
equipment: when idle, the power was on (which would
look like 1111111). Therefore both the 0000000 and
the 1111111 patterns were eliminated from the
encoding (null patterns).
Extended ASCII
Byte = Collection of bits used to encode a character
ASCII is almost always implemented using an 8-bit
byte (character).
Only the 7-bit patterns were standardized under
ASCII.
Standard 8-bit ASCII codes start with a zero-valued
bit (followed by the 7-bit ASCII code).
Extended ASCII codes start with a one-valued bit;
these codes are not standard and vary in meaning
among different manufactures and equipment.
End of Lecture