Coding

In all digital communications channels, computers transmit data and information in forms of binary codes. Both sender and receiver of the data and information should have a standard for both to understand them.

A coding scheme for communications is a binary system, as in the computer systems. The system consists of groups of bits (0 or 1) that represent characters. In computer systems, a byte is a group of bits and represents a character. In data communications, a byte is the same, but some codes use different number of bits such as 5, 7, 8 or 9.

Two predominant coding schemes ASCII and EBCDIC. ASCII refers America Standard Code for Information Interchange. It is the most popular code for data communications and is the standard code on most communications terminals. Among two types of ASCII, a 7-bit code can make 128 character combinations, and an 8-bit can do 256 combinations. EBCDIC refers Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code. It is IBM's standard information code, and has 8 bits for a character.