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From: johnl@haddock.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.arch
Subject: Re: Orphaned Response - (nf)
Message-ID: <44@haddock.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 30-Jan-84 23:35:28 EST
Article-I.D.: haddock.44
Posted: Mon Jan 30 23:35:28 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 1-Feb-84 01:50:58 EST
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#R:parsec:32800003:haddock:9500008:000:616
haddock!johnl    Jan 30 10:31:00 1984

Without trying to fan the flames, I believe that the advantages of two's
complement arithmetic over its main competitors, one's complement and
sign-magnitude are:

  -- Unique representation of zero (the others have +0 and -0)

  -- Simpler design of adders and subtracters.  The other two require
     tweaks like end-around carry to get the right answer.
     Multiplication and division are consquently simpler, too.

  -- Easier software implementation of multiple-precision aritmetic,
     since signed and unsigned addition are the same except for the
     interpretation of the result

John Levine, ima!johnl