THE HEXADECIMAL NUMBER
SYSTEM
Hexadecimal number
system uses 16 as its base or radix. The basic elements of this system consist
of digits from 0 to 9 and alphabets A, B, C, D, E, and F. Letter A to F are
assigned with values of 10 to 15. Thus A ≡ 10, B ≡ 11, C ≡ 12, D ≡ 13, E ≡ 14,
and F ≡ 15. In terms of binary equivalents, A ≡ 1010, B ≡ 1011, C ≡ 1100, D ≡1101,
E ≡ 1110, and F ≡ 1111. Hexadecimal system is used in microprocessors and
microcontrollers to write their operating codes (op-codes). Since there are
sixteen basic numbers to play with, instructions using hex are more compact
than those the using decimal or binary number systems.