A solid-state drive (SSD) controller tracks the cumulative wear-leveling write-erase cycle count for each flash memory block. This count is strictly non-negative. The controller is designed to use an nnn-bit register to store this value.
Identify the primary advantage of choosing an unsigned integer representation over a two's complement signed integer representation for this system.
Unsigned representation permits a wider range of negative values if the block count undergoes an underflow.
Unsigned representation increases the numerical precision of fractional parts of the write-erase cycles.
Unsigned representation allows the controller to represent a maximum positive value that is approximately twice as large as that of a two's complement representation using the same number of bits.
Unsigned representation prevents arithmetic overflow from occurring when the write-erase count exceeds the capacity of the register.
117 exam-style questions on Edexcel GCSE Computer Science Binary, covering Binary representation and number of states, Unsigned and two's complement integers, Converting denary and 8-bit binary, Binary addition and binary shifts, Concept of overflow, and Hexadecimal notation and conversion. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.