EH-Net

Hello,
I had an exam this morning which had the following question:

What is the largest positive value that can be represented using a 16-bit 2's complement representation?

My answer was 32766

Im sure its wrong tho, any one know the real answer?

Been a while since I've done this.  I think you're one shy, and the answer is 32767.

16-bit would be 1000000000000000, and flipping the bits would yield 0111111111111111, which is equal to 32767 decimal.

To support my thinking, I found the following:

"For instance, a 16-bit word can represent signed integers in the range −32 768 to + 32 767."

which I took from:

http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=175771

HTH.

(edit - please excuse me if I'm incorrect, and someone tell us otherwise...  been a LONG time since I'd done these, too)

I think your right because 0 is a positive number and I completely forgot about it.

Thanks for the help!  :)

What was the subject matter of the test, out of curiosity?

Computer System Fundamentals

The whole module was based on the following book:
Fundamentals of Computer Architecture - Mark Burrell (2004)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fundamentals-Computer-Architecture-Mark-Burrell/dp/0333998669

Ethicalhack3r,


Just out of interest, was Mark Burrell also one of the module lecturers?
I remember some sleep-inducing lectures from him :D

Andrew

He wasnt one of my lecturers but he used to lecture at Northumbria, think he left a couple of years ago maybe?!

I think its the logic gates that get me nodding off...

Must have left after my days then, tbh think the whole module got me sleeping.

Wish I'd paid more attention now I'm playing with shellcode, turns out the low-level stuff is still relevant. Who'd of thought the lecturers would have a better understanding of the industry than the students? :)