Logic and Binary Data

Abstract

A computer system consists of the actual machine, the hardware, and the programs which instruct the machine as to what it should do, the software. When the computer executes these instructions, it processes various data which are input to or stored in the machine. One of the innovations suggested by Von Neumann was that the data should consist of various binary values rather than decimal values. Binary data can have one of two values and the processing of such data is achieved by operations known as logic functions, and simple logic circuits exist which perform these functions.