Question

If a computer is capable only of manipulating and storing integers, what difficulties present themselves? How are these difficulties overcome?

Answer 1

Answer explained below

Step-by-step explanation:

Yes, the computer works only through bits. A bit is nothing but a binary digit which is either 1 or 0. Whatever may be the information, the information is being decoded into 0's and 1's by its underlying processor.

- The BCD (Binary Coded Decimal) in 6 bits variation is being used which represent characters and numbers. Lowercases were not a part of it.

- More information processing capability and uniformity was demanded by the designers of System 360.

- In order to maintain compatibility, the BCD 6 bits was expanded to 8 bits which are called Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code.

- IBM started to use EBCDIC.

- Instruction Set Architecture became complex and was solved through enhanced RISC and CISC types.