Core Dump
Core Dump
If everything were printed in binary
representation, the programmer would see page after page of l's and
O's. Error detection would be difficult.
To alleviate this problem, the contents of memory
locations in computers can be represented by the octal number system
or the hexadecimal (base 16) number system. In the hexadecimal number
system, sixteen symbols are used to represent the digits 0 through 15
(see Figure below).
Binary, Hexadecimal and Decimal Values
Note that the letters A through F designate the numbers 10 through 15. The fact that each position in a hexadecimal number represents a power of 16 allows for easy conversion from binary to hexadecimal since 16 is equal to 2 to the fourth power. A single hexadecimal digit can be used to represent four binary digits.
As noted above, four binary digits can be represented by one hexadecimal digit. This is done by considering the first four binary place values (from right to left) that sum to 15, the highest single digit value in the hexadecimal number system.
A binary value contained in a 32-bit word as a hexadecimal value could be converted as follows:
The hexadecimal value can be converted to its decimal equivalent. Keep in mind that each digit of the hexadecimal number represents a power of 16.
