Chapter 1 Information Representation

Syllabus sections covered: 1.1 (1.1.1–1.1.5)

Teaching resources

Topics Syllabus 40 min. Resources in the Resources on

sections periods coursebook or ebook this CD-ROM
1 Numbers 1.1.1 4 Question 1.01 Worksheet 1.1
Task 1.01 Worksheet 1.2
Task 1.02
Worked Example 1.01
Task 1.03
Exam-style Question 1
Ebook Question 1.1
Ebook Question 1.2
2 Text 1.1.1 1 Ebook Question 1.3
3 Images 1.1.2 3 Task 1.04 Worksheet 1.1
Exam-style Question 2
Ebook Question 1.4
4 Sound 1.1.3 2 Exam-style Question 3 Worksheet 1.1
5 Video 1.1.4 2 Ebook Question 1.5
6 Compression 1.1.4 2 Extension question 1.01 Worksheet 1.1
& Exam-style Question 2 Worksheet 1.2
1.1.5

Past exam paper questions

Paper Series Question Topic

9608/11 June 2015 1 numbers
9608/12 June 2015 1 numbers
9608/12 Nov 2015 3 numbers
9608 SP5 5 numbers
9608/11 Nov 2015 8 images
9608/12 Nov 2015 3 images
9608 SP1 5 images
9608/11 June 2015 2 sound
9608/12 Nov 2015 4 sound
9608/11 June 2015 2 compression

1.01 Topic 1 Numbers

Coursebook sections 1.01 Number systems and 1.02 Internal coding of numbers

Teaching ideas

There is a need for presentation of the required knowledge followed by extensive

paper-based exercises to develop skills. Students need to become confident in
handling binary representations. For the part of the presentation relating to internal
coding, examples of four-bit representations can be sufficient to explain the ideas

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 but exercises provided might better be based on eight or possibly 16-bit
representations.

Supporting notes

There are two strands to this topic. The first concerns the representation of numbers
and conversion between different representations and has no direct reference to how
numbers are stored inside a computer system. The second strand is an initial, limited
consideration of how numbers may be stored in a computer system. The only
reference to real numbers in the AS syllabus is in 2.2.1 which has real as one of the
data types that candidates should be able to use. The internal representation of
floating-point numbers is only introduced in 3.1.3. You therefore have options as to
whether you wish to discuss real numbers at this stage. Also, there is no explicit
reference to binary arithmetic in 1.1.1 and the first mention of overflow in the
syllabus is in 3.1.3. However, the reference to practical applications for use of BCD
and the reference to the status register in 1.4.1 suggest that consideration of binary
arithmetic for integers can be helpful at this stage. Note that calculators are not
allowed in the exam. This must limit the complexity of any numerical manipulation
included in a paper. However, it can still be helpful to provide exercises where a
calculator is needed.
Some facts relating to a basic understanding are:
• If a denary odd number is converted to binary the least significant bit must be a
1.
• The norm for unsigned integers is to count from 0 upwards.
• The values for powers of two from 20 up to 28 are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128,
256.
• A byte has eight bits for which there are 28 = 256 different combinations
allowing 256 different codes, but for unsigned integers the highest value is 256
– 1 because one of the codes represents 0.
• If signed integers were stored in sign and magnitude representation simple
arithmetic manipulation would be very difficult
• In two’s complement representation of signed integers the topmost bit is 0 for
positive and 1 for negative values
• In two’s complement representation the smallest magnitude negative number
has all 1s which can be explained by the fact that the corresponding denary
value can be calculated by assigning a negative value to the most significant bit
but positive values to all remaining bits.
• BCD coding does not fully utilise the four bits in a nibble and numbers might be
wastefully stored with one nibble per byte.

High achievers

Could be encouraged to research computer arithmetic including that associated with

the use of BCD. Task 1.03 could be set as an exercise.

Questions or tasks suitable for homework

Tasks 1.01, 1.02 and possibly 1.03 in the coursebook

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 Exam-style Question 1
Ebook Questions 1.1 and 1.2
June 2015 Question Papers 11 and 12, Q1
November 2015 Question Paper 12 Q3
Specimen Paper 1 Q5

1.02 Topic 2 Text

Coursebook section 1.03 Internal coding of text

Teaching ideas

This topic requires development of knowledge and understanding but students must
be reassured that no detailed knowledge of the coding schemes is expected.
Presentation of some example coding will be required with appropriate comments
regarding the relative positions of related codes. It should be emphasised that
Unicode is an evolving standard that has the potential for recording codes in several
bytes.

Supporting notes

The ASCII concept is simple and straightforward; the totality of the Unicode scheme
is complex and not recommended reading for any but your most able students. You
may wish to schedule your teaching of this topic to coincide with material relating to
section 2.2 in the syllabus, which is covered in coursebook sections 13.03, 13.08 and
13.09.
Some facts relating to a basic understanding are:
• Seven-bit ASCII is a long-established standard; eight-bit versions of ASCII exist
but have not been standardised.
• ASCII codes are either control codes, which are not displayed, or graphic codes,
which are.
• Conversion of an upper case letter to lower case just needs one bit in the code
changing.
• The normal version of Unicode is UTF-8.
• Unicode refers to code points, which are represented in documentation as U+
followed by four hexadecimal digits; for example, the letter a is code point
U+0061 and the Greek letter σ is code point U+03C3.

High achievers

High achievers might be asked to carry out limited research into some of the Unicode
schemes.

Questions or tasks suitable for homework

Ebook Question 1.3

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 1.03 Topic 3 Images
Coursebook section 1.04 Images

Teaching ideas

This is a straightforward topic. Students need knowledge of the two approaches for
storing an image, when they are likely to be used, and their relative advantages and
disadvantages. In addition, there is a skill element in applying the understanding to a
representative scenario. Your initial presentation might include only a representative
selection of images. Alternatively you might wish to include demonstrations of using
appropriate software to aid understanding or refer to students’ experience of using
such. There is scope for practical activities to develop understanding and skills.
Students could be provided with graph paper. Working in pairs, each could draw two
or three objects, create a drawing list then pass this on to the other student who has
to recreate the drawing. Another option is for bitmap images to be created on graph
paper with different resolutions. An option here is to use conditional formatting for
cells in a spreadsheet. To emphasise the need for some header (meta) data in a
bitmap file one possibility is to demonstrate using, for example, a string of beads or
perhaps a tape measure to represent the body of a bitmap file. This can be used to
show the need to know how many bits there are per pixel and how many pixels are
on a row of the pixel matrix.

Supporting notes

Note that there is no explicit reference in this part of the syllabus to how an image is
created so practical use of a software package is not essential. There are
opportunities for better understanding by cross-referencing with syllabus 1.3.1
covered in coursebook sections 3.05 and 3.07. The syllabus has no explicit reference
to the use of the kibi,mebi etc. but the coursebook introduces them. It is a matter
for your judgement as to whether or not you wish to introduce them to your
students.
Some facts relating to a basic understanding are:
• There are two defining quantities for a bitmap image: the colour depth defining
the number of bits per pixel and the resolution defining the dimensions of the
image matrix measured in pixels.
• A pixel is the smallest individual element in an image, which can be thought of
as a dot, small circle or square.
• A pixel is defined by a binary code representing its colour.
• The position of the pixel code in the bitmap file allows its position in the image
to be calculated using the header data defining the image resolution.
• The drawing list for an object in a vector graphic file should begin with the
name of the shape.
• Dimensions in a drawing list must be relative to the overall dimensions of the
image.

Questions or tasks suitable for homework

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 Task 1.04
Exam-style Question 2
Ebook Question 1.4
November 2015 Question Paper 11 Q8
November 2015 Question Paper 12 Q3
Specimen Paper 1 Q5

Topic 4 Sound
Coursebook section 1.05 Sound

Teaching ideas

This topic has one major component, which is how an analogue sound wave can be
recorded using binary coding. Students need knowledge and understanding and the
skill to apply this to a practical example. The following figure from the coursebook
can be used in a presentation to explain sampling.

Figure 1.01 ADC Sampling

A practical exercise could be used with students working in pairs. Onestudent could
draw a waveform on graph paper then create a set of sample values of the
amplitude then pass it to the other student to recreate the waveform. Then they can
compare the two waveforms.
Students can best achieve an understanding of how sound-editing can be used
through direct practical experience or by practical demonstration. If some students
have such experience a discussion session might allow others to gain knowledge
from them.

Supporting notes

Some facts relating to a basic understanding are:

• The sampling rate defines precisely when measurements of amplitude are
made.

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 • The sampling rate should be in accordance with Nyquist’s theorem.
• There is an approximation when the ADC converts the analogue signal to a
binary value.
• The approximation is closer if more bits are used for the code, that is if the
sampling resolution is improved.
• File size increases with increasing sampling resolution and with increasing
sampling rate but this will improve quality.

Questions or tasks suitable for homework

Exam-style Question 3
June 2015 Question Paper 11 Q2
November 2015 Question Paper 12 Q4

1.05 Topic 5 Video

Coursebook section 1.06 Video

Teaching ideas

Knowledge and understanding is the aim for students. A straightforward presentation

should be sufficient.

Supporting notes

The syllabus emphasis is on the visual display aspects. The only need to consider the
sound track is the reference to multimedia container format in syllabus 1.1.4. The
suggestion here is to postpone this until after compression has been discussed.
Compression of a video is in syllabus 1.1.4 but the suggestion is also to postpone
this until after basic compression techniques have been introduced. Frame rate is a
simple concept. Interlaced and progressive encoding need a little more time for
understanding to be achieved. You may wish to link this with syllabus 1.2 relating to
bit streaming which is covered in coursebook section 2.06 but, again, this is probably
best considered after you have discussed compression.
Some facts relating to a basic understanding are:
• Display of an individual frame is created line by line.
• Interlaced encoding splits the image into two halves that are displayed
separately to give the eye what appears to be a high refresh rate.
• The alternative is progressive encoding, which requires a higher bandwidth.

Questions or tasks suitable for homework

Ebook Question 1.5

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 1.06 Topic 6 Compression
Coursebook section 1.07 Compression techniques and packaging of multimedia content

Teaching ideas

Students need to gain knowledge and understanding. It might be beneficial to begin

with a discussion about the need or benefit of using compression with students
encouraged to relate any direct experience they have had in using it. This could
include reminding them that saving a file to a specific file type can lead to
compression being used without this being made clear to the user. A presentation
can follow to summarise the main points and then to consider the question of
whether it is ever beneficial or necessary to recover the original file from its
compressed form. This can then lead to the concepts of lossy and lossless
compression. Practical exercises could involve using appropriate software to
compress files and observing the change in file size. A small paragraph of text could
be scrutinised using the find operation to get a count of common letters. The
suggested codes shown in coursebook Table 1.04 for Huffman coding could then be
used to calculate the number of bits saved compared to when using ASCII codes for
the letters.

Supporting notes

The syllabus is not specific about techniques other than referring to run-length
encoding. There is no reference to knowledge of any specific file formats being
required. You will, therefore, need to make your own judgement as to how much
coverage you give to specific technologies.
Some facts relating to a basic understanding are:
• It is vital that a file containing text is compressed using a lossless technique
otherwise the text could become incomprehensible.
• Lossy techniques normally rely on the imperfection of human senses such as
limited ability to hear certain frequency ranges or limited ability to distinguish
colours.

High achievers

Might be asked to carry out research as suggested in coursebook Extension question

1.01. Another area suitable for research would be the way multimedia container
formats work.

Questions or tasks suitable for homework

Extension Question 1.01

Exam-style Question 2
June 2015 Question Paper 11 Q2

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 1.07 Recommended reading and resources
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/A-
level_Computing/AQA/Problem_Solving,_Programming,_Data_Representation_and_P
ractical_Exercise/Fundamentals_of_Data_Representation/Binary_number_system
http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~csonline/NumberSystems/Lessons/index.html
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/A-
level_Computing/AQA/Problem_Solving,_Programming,_Data_Representation_and_P
ractical_Exercise/Fundamentals_of_Data_Representation/ASCII
http://unicode.org/
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/A-
level_Computing/AQA/Problem_Solving,_Programming,_Data_Representation_and_P
ractical_Exercise/Fundamentals_of_Data_Representation/Images
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/A-
level_Computing/AQA/Problem_Solving,_Programming,_Data_Representation_and_P
ractical_Exercise/Fundamentals_of_Data_Representation/Sounds
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/file-compression2.htm
www.cs4fn.org/mathemagic/sonic.html

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