octal

oc·tal

O0026500 (ŏk′təl)adj. Of, relating to, or based on the number eight: an octal number system.n. A number system having 8 as its base: 16 in base 10 is represented in octal as 20.

oc•tal

(ˈɒk tl)

adj. of or pertaining to a number system with base 8, employing the numerals 0 through 7. [1935–40; < Latin oct(ō) or Greek okt(ṓ) eight + -al¹]

Thesaurus

Adj.

octal - of or pertaining to a number system having 8 as its base; "an octal digit"

Translations

octal

[′äkt·əl] (mathematics) Pertaining to the octal number system.

octal

(mathematics)Base 8. A number representation using thedigits 0-7 only, with the right-most digit counting ones, thenext counting multiples of 8, then 8^2 = 64, etc. Forexample, octal 177 is digital 127:

digit weight value1 8^2 = 64 1* 64 = 647 8^1 = 8 7* 8 = 567 8^0 = 1 7* 1 = 7---127

Octal system used to be widespread back when many computersused 6-bit bytes, as a 6-bit byte can be convenientlywritten as a two-digit octal number. Since nowadays a byte isalmost always 8-bit long the octal system lost most of itsappeal to the hexadecimal system.

For a brief discussion on the word `octal' see hexadecimal.

octal

A numbering system that uses eight digits. It is used as a shorthand method for representing binary characters that use six-bits. Each three bits (half a character) is converted into a single octal digit. Okta is Greek for 8.

Decimal Binary Octal 0 000 0 1 001 1 2 010 2 3 011 3 4 100 4 5 101 5 6 110 6 7 111 7

Acronym

Definition

OCTAL➣Outstanding Contribution to Teaching and Learning (University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia)