UGC NET Questions (Paper – 1)

Signed magnitude representation uses one bit, typically the most significant bit, to indicate the sign of the number. The remaining bits represent the magnitude and are the same for both positive and negative versions. Thus, negative numbers differ from their positive counterparts only in the sign bit. The magnitude bits remain unchanged.

Option A:
Option A, magnitude, is incorrect because the magnitude bits for +5 and -5 are identical in signed magnitude representation. Only the sign indicator changes.

Option B:
Option B, parity, refers to an error-checking mechanism where an extra bit indicates whether the number of ones is even or odd. It is not the primary difference between positive and negative values in this scheme.

Option C:
Option C is correct because the sign bit explicitly encodes whether the number is positive or negative while leaving the magnitude intact. This is why the representation is called signed magnitude.

Option D:
Option D, overflow, describes a condition when a calculation exceeds the representable range. It is typically recorded in a separate status flag rather than being the distinguishing bit between positive and negative values.