two's complement
noun1
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences The number obtained by complementing every bit of a given number and adding one. A number and its complement add to 2ⁿ, where n is the word size of the machine.
- The two's complement of 0xAAAA is 0x5556 on a 16-bit machine, and 0xFFFF5556 on a 32-bit machine.
2
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences The convention by which bit patterns with high bit 0 represent positive numbers from 0 to 2ⁿ⁻¹-1 directly, while bit patterns with high bit 1 represent negative numbers from −1 to -2ⁿ⁻¹, n being the word size of the machine, and the numeric complement of a number is its two's complement.
- Nearly all modern computers use two's complement for integer arithmetic.
- Related terms
- complement, radix complement, numeric complement, ones' complement, signed magnitude