Signed Binary Encoding


Often it is necessary to be able to work with numbers which may be either negative or positive. The basic unsigned binary encoding scheme can easily be extended to permit signed values by means of a system called 2's Complement encoding. In terms of processor circuitry, the inclusion of 2's Complement requires two additional flags: the Sign flag and the Overflow flag.

The shorthand "hexadecimal" notation is a convenience for humans which reduces the difficulties and number or errors that would arise if we needed to work with internal computer patterns as long sequences of 0's and 1's.


Allowing Negative Values - 2's Complement Encoding

For an negative number:

2 More Flags: Sign and Overflow