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← CPUs Lesson 1 / 6

Signals & Bits

Inside a computer there are no numbers — just wires. A wire with electricity is a 1; an empty wire is a 0. Stack eight of them and they spell a number.

Flip the wires

8 wires = 8 bits = one byte. Tap any wire to switch its voltage on or off.

Binary

Decimal value

180

LED bar

The same byte, three ways: 10110100 is just eight voltages — and a stack of voltages is a number (180).