Serial and Parallel Data
Data is transmitted and moved in one of two formats: parallel or serial. Parallel data is
sent one character at a time with all of its bits moving at the same time over parallel wires.
Serial data is transmitted one bit at a time over a single wire. Figure 19-5 illustrates the
difference between these two transmission modes.
Asisdiscussedlater,morethan8bitsareactuallysentforacharacterregardlessofthe
mode used to transmit it. The added bits are used for data integrity, identification of data
blocks, and synchronization, if used.(^482) PC Hardware: A Beginner’s Guide
Character Decimal Binary
SPACE 32 00100000
! 33 00100001
$ 36 00100100
0 (zero) 48 00110000
1 49 00110001
2 50 00110010
: 58 00111010
; 59 00111011
? 63 00111111
A 65 01000001
B 66 01000010
C 67 01000011
X 88 01011000
Y 89 01011001
Z 90 01011010
a 97 01100001
b 98 01100010
c 99 01100011
x 120 01111000
y 121 01111001
z 122 01111010
Table 19-1. Sample ASCII Characters(continued)