Since multimedia is usually defined as the integration of sound etc. with text, we start with text.

Strictly, speaking, text is created on a computer, so it doesn't really extend a computer system the way audio and video do. But, understanding how text is stored will set the scene for understanding how multimedia is stored.

Interestingly, when computers were first developed, it was thought that their major use would be processing numbers (called number-crunching).

This is not the major use of computers today. Processing words (not called word-crunching!) is the major use.

Question: So, how are words stored?

Answer: Character by character.

Characters can be more than letters - they can be digits, punctuation. Even the carriage-return when you hit the return key is stored as a character.

Computers deal with all data by turning switches off and on in a sequence. We look at this by calling an off switch "0" and and on switch "1". These 0's and 1's are called bits.

Everything in a computer is ultimately represented by sequences of 0's and 1's - bits. If the sequence were of length 2, we could have 00, 01, 10, or 11. Four items. Similarly, we find that a sequence of length 3 can represent 8 items (000, 001, 010, ...). A sequence of length 4 can represent 16 things (0000, 0001, 0010, ...)

There are about 128 characters that a computer has to store. This should take a sequence of length 7. In reality, 8 bits are used instead of 7 (the 8th bit is used to check on the data).

The point to remember here is that:

___ ___ ___ What do these buttons mean?