Can anyone tell me

Well, It’s Octal

what is this ?
number !

World University
Unit 2.3
of Bangladesh Digital Number System
 World University LEARNING
of Bangladesh
OBJECTIVE

By the end of this Lecture, Students should able to:

Describe Octal Number System

Nice !

Summer Semester 2020 | Digital Electronics I (CEI 605) – Digital Number System 02
 World University
of Bangladesh OUTLINE

Overview of Octal Number System

Octal
Example of Octal Number
Applications of Octal Number System
Characteristics of Octal Number System
Advantages of Octal Number System
Disadvantages of Octal Number System
Symbols of Octal

Summer Semester 2020 | Digital Electronics I (CEI 605) – Digital Number System 03
 World University
of Bangladesh OVERVIEW

Octal Number System is one of the type of Number Representation techniques, in which there value
of base is 8. That means there are only 8 symbols or possible digit values, there are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7. It requires only 3 bits to represent value of any digit. Octal numbers are indicated by the addition of
either an 0o prefix or an 8 suffix.

Position of every digit has a weight which is a power of 8. Each position in the Octal system is 8 times
more significant than the previous position, that means numeric value of an octal number is
determined by multiplying each digit of the number by the value of the position in which the digit
appears and then adding the products. So, it is also a positional (or weighted) number system.

Summer Semester 2020 | Digital Electronics I (CEI 605) – Digital Number System 04
 World University
of Bangladesh OCTAL

Oct means 8 and this is a number system with a base or radix 8. Hence it is called so. It is also called
base 8. The position of the digits in an octal number system is given as follows:

Fig. 1 – Representation of Octal position values as power of 8

Summer Semester 2020 | Digital Electronics I (CEI 605) – Digital Number System 05
 World University
of Bangladesh EXAMPLE

An Octal Number uses only these 8 digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. You can have a look at the
following figure:

Fig. 2 – Representation of Octal Number System

Summer Semester 2020 | Digital Electronics I (CEI 605) – Digital Number System 06
 World University
of Bangladesh APPLICATIONS

The octal numbers are not as common as they used to be. However, Octal is used when the number of
bits in one word is a multiple of 3. It is also used as a shorthand for representing file permissions on
UNIX systems and representation of UTF8 numbers, etc.

Summer Semester 2020 | Digital Electronics I (CEI 605) – Digital Number System 07
 World University
of Bangladesh CHARACTERISTICS

There are several characteristics of Octal Number System. They are -

i. It uses eight digits, 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7.

ii. It is also called base 8 number system.
iii. Each position in an octal number represents a 0 power of the base (8) (such as 80).
iv. Last position in an octal number represents an x power of the base (8). Example: 8x where x
represents the last position - 1.

Summer Semester 2020 | Digital Electronics I (CEI 605) – Digital Number System 09
 World University
of Bangladesh ADVANTAGES

There are several advantages of Octal Number System. They are -

i. Size of the string in octal representation is small.

ii. Due to the small length of the string, chances of errors in the result are less.
iii. The bits can be easily converted according to the need.

Summer Semester 2020 | Digital Electronics I (CEI 605) – Digital Number System 09
 World University
of Bangladesh DISADVANTAGES

Every time an additional converting unit is required as digital circuits operates on only binary values.
Thus, data in the octal form must be converted into binary format.

Summer Semester 2020 | Digital Electronics I (CEI 605) – Digital Number System 10
 World University
of Bangladesh SYMBOL

All the numbers in the Octal system are represented using 8 characteristics, from 0 to 7.  

Fig. 3 – Representation of Octal Symbols

Summer Semester 2020 | Digital Electronics I (CEI 605) – Digital Number System 11
 World University TOPICS FOR THE
of Bangladesh
NEXT LECTURE

In the next Lecture, Students will know:

Overview of Hexadecimal Number System

Thanks for this

information !

Summer Semester 2020 | Digital Electronics I (CEI 605) – Digital Number System 12
World University
of Bangladesh THANKS

Thank You For Attention !

Summer Semester 2020 | Digital Electronics I (CEI 605) – Digital Number System 13