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Difference Between EBCDIC and ASCII
EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code) and ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) are two-character encoding methods used in digital communication to represent characters.
ASCII is a character encoding method that uses a 7-bit code to represent 128 characters, which include letters, numbers, and special characters. EBCDIC has 256 characters and is used to represent a wide variety of characters, such as letters, numbers, special characters, and control characters.
Read this article to find out more about EBCDIC and ASCII and how they are different from each other.
What is EBCDIC?
IBM created EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code) in the 1960s to represent characters in digital communication. EBCDIC is an 8-bit code, which indicates that each character is represented by 8 bits. EBCDIC can therefore represent up to 256 characters, including letters, numbers, special characters, and control characters.
EBCDIC's ability to handle numerous languages and character sets is one of its key features. EBCDIC was created for use in IBM mainframe computers, which were used in a variety of countries that used different languages and character sets. EBCDIC has several code pages that determine how characters are represented using suitable byte sequences to support these different languages.
EBCDIC additionally includes control characters, which are used to control the communication system's behavior. Control characters are not printable but rather perform particular operations such as carriage return, line feed, and tab.
One disadvantage of EBCDIC is that it is incompatible with other character encoding schemes, such as ASCII, which is the standard character encoding method used in the majority of modern computing systems. This can cause issues when transferring data between systems that use various encoding methods.
Despite these compatibility issues, EBCDIC is still widely used on IBM mainframe systems and other legacy computing platforms. EBCDIC is still used in several modern applications, particularly in the finance and banking industries.
What is ASCII?
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) character encoding method was created in the 1960s to represent characters in digital communication. ASCII is a 7-bit code, which indicates that each character is represented by 7 bits. ASCII is now able to represent up to 128 characters, which include letters, numbers, special characters, and control characters.
ASCII was created for telegraph communication, but it quickly spread to computers and other digital devices. ASCII is now the standard character encoding scheme used in the majority of modern computing systems, including desktop computers, laptop computers, and mobile devices.
ASCII features control characters in addition to basic characters, which are used to control the behaviour of the communication system. Control characters are not printable but rather perform particular operations such as carriage return, line feed, and tab.
ASCII is also compatible with other character encoding schemes, allowing data transfer between systems that use different encoding schemes. However, one of ASCII's disadvantages is its limited character set, which makes it difficult to represent characters from non-English languages or in applications requiring more broad character sets.
To address this limitation, numerous ASCII extensions have been developed, including ASCII-8, which uses 8 bits to represent each character, and ASCII-128, which includes 128 characters.
Difference between EBCDIC and ASCII
The following table highlights the major differences between EBCDIC and ASCII −
Characteristics |
EBCDIC |
ASCII |
|---|---|---|
Full Form |
Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC) |
American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) |
Bit Length |
8 bits |
7 bits |
Number of Characters |
Up to 256 |
Up to 128 |
Usage |
IBM mainframe computers |
Desktop computers, laptops, and mobile devices |
Character Set |
Multiple character sets with different code pages |
Basic characters and control characters |
Compatibility |
It is not compatible with ASCII. |
ASCII is compatible with other encoding methods. |
Developed |
EBCDIC was developed by IBM in the 1960s. |
ASCII was developed by the United States in the 1960s. |
Control Characters |
It includes control characters for carriage return, line feed, and tab. |
It includes control characters for carriage return, line feed, and tab. |
Language Support |
It supports multiple languages and character sets. |
It has limited support for non-English languages. |
Efficiency |
Less |
More |
Conclusion
In conclusion, EBCDIC and ASCII are two different character encoding methods used in digital communication to represent characters. EBCDIC was mostly used in mainframe computers and IBM systems, although ASCII is the more generally used and accepted standard. To represent characters, ASCII uses a 7-bit code, but EBCDIC uses an 8-bit code, which allows it to represent more characters.
A further notable difference is the specific character codes used in each encoding method. While both EBCDIC and ASCII can represent letters, numbers, and special characters, their different character codes make them incompatible. Understanding the differences between EBCDIC and ASCII is important for effective and accurate digital communication in various computing systems.
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