The Octal Number System

Octal Number System (Base-8) The octal number system uses EIGHT values to represent numbers. The values are, 01234567 with 0 having the least value and seven having the greatest value. Columns are used in the same way as in the decimal system, in that the left most column is used to represent the greatest value. As we have seen in the decimal system, the values in the set (0 and 1) repeat, in both the vertical and horizontal directions. 0 - 7, 10 -17, 20 - 27, 30 37 ...... Example Convert 176 in octal to decimal. Each column represents a power of 8, 264 becomes ..... 4 * 80 = 4 6 * 81 = 48 2 * 82 = 128 adding the results together gives 180 (in decimal)

Octal Number System (Base-8) The octal number system uses EIGHT values to represent numbers. The values are, 01234567 with 0 having the least value and seven having the greatest value. Columns are used in the same way as in the decimal system, in that the left most column is used to represent the greatest value. As we have seen in the decimal system, the values in the set (0 and 1) repeat, in both the vertical and horizontal directions. 0 - 7, 10 -17, 20 - 27, 30 - 37 ......

Example Convert 176 in octal to decimal. Each column represents a power of 8, 264 becomes ..... 4 * 80 = 4 6 * 81 = 48 2 * 82 = 128 adding the results together gives 180 (in decimal) Octal was used extensively in early mainframe computer systems, but has become less popular in favour of binary and hexadecimal today.

A numbering system that uses eight digits, 0 to 7, arranged in a series of columns to represent all numerical quantities. Each column or place value has a weighted value of 1, 8, 64, 512, and so on, ranging from right to left.

Octal is a term that describes a base-8 number system. An octal number system consists of eight single-digit numbers: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. The number after 7 is 10. The number after 17 is 20 and so forth. Uses:
1 Octal was used extensively in early mainframe computer systems, but has become less popular in favour of binary and hexadecimal today.

2-In computer programming, the octal equivalent of a binary number is sometimes used to represent it because it is shorter 3-The octal number system was used widely in the Electronics and Computer Industry, as although digital electronics is based on gates with only two states and is therefore fundamentally binary, binary numbers can quickly become long and hard to transcribe without errors. Their octal equivalents are much shorter and easier to remember, and have a straight-forward way of conversion to/from binary. 4-Octal widely used in computing when systems such as the PDP-8, ICL 1900 and IBM mainframes employed 12-bit, 24-bit or 36-bit words. Octal was an ideal abbreviation of binary for these machines because their word size is divisible by three (each octal digit represents three binary digits). 5-It also cut costs by allowing Nixie tubes, seven-segment displays, and calculators to be used for the operator consoles, where binary displays were too complex to use, decimal displays needed complex hardware to convert radices, and hexadecimal displays needed to display more numerals. 6-Some platforms with a power-of-two word size still have instruction subwords that are more easily understood if displayed in octal; this includes the PDP-11 and Motorola 68000 family

7-Octal is sometimes used in computing instead of hexadecimal, perhaps most often in modern times in conjunction with file permissions under Unix systems. It has the advantage of not requiring any extra symbols as digits (the hexadecimal system is base16 and therefore needs six additional symbols beyond 09). It is also used for digital displays. 8-Octal numbers that are used in some programming languages (C, Perl, PostScript) for textual/graphical representations of byte strings when some byte values (unrepresented in a code page, non-graphical, having special meaning in current context or otherwise undesired) have to be to escaped.

9-The PDP-11 computer made by the Digital Equipment Corporation used the octal numeric system exclusively for displaying memory addresses and content. The use of octal numbers has declined as most modern computers no longer base their word length on multiples of three bits, (they are based on multiples of four bits, so hexadecimal is more widely used).