One s complement and two´s complement logic behind

Question

for my computer science class I need to finish a project where I desperately need to understand logic of one´s complement and two´s complement. I already know how to construct these and also how hardware adder works when dealing with two´s complement. The thing that is bothering me and I need help with is the logic behind one´s complement addition. Why do we have to add the bit we would carry over (and discard when using two complement coding) to the sum to get the correct result? I don´t understand why binary addition behaves like this when adding one´s complement and why is that last adding of carry over bit so crucial. I need to understand the logic behind it. Thanks

Answer 1

A 1's complement number (say,16 bits) can be described as below - in terms of the relationship between the binary code c (which is 0..0xFFFF, or 0..65535) and the 'value' x which the code represents, x is in range -32767.. 32767.

• if the value x is 0..32767, the code c is numerically equal to x, and thus has a zero in the MSB
• if the value x is negative, -1 .. -32767, then c is 65535 - x, and the MSB of c is 1.
• The code c=65535 = 0xFFFF is to be interpreted as zero; since it has a 1 in the MSB I will call it '-0'.

Now consider what happens to the x values when you add two codes using a a binary adder:

• If both x1, x2 are positive, the adder adds the codes: c = c1 + c2. both MSBs are zero at the input, so there will be no carry. So the value of c will be the sum x1+ x2 and this is how it will be interpreted (assuming the sum doesn't overflow into the MSB).

• If both x1, x2 are negative, then by adding c1+c2 you are adding (65535+x1)+(65535+x2). There will always be a carry-out; by discarding this you end up with a binary value equal to 65534+(x1+x2). To get the code we want to represent this negative sum, i.e. 65535+(x1+x2), we need to add 1 more.

• If the signs are different, the sum of codes is 65535+(x1+x2). There may or may not be a carry-out. Since the MSBs are different, the carry-out occurs if, and only if, the MSB of the sum is zero. In the case where the true sum (x1+x2) < 0, you won't have a carry-out, and the value 65535+(x1+x2) is the proper code for (x1+x2). If the sum (x1+x2)>0, there will be a carry-out; the sum of the codes (after discarding the carry out) will be (x1+x2)-1, and thus you have to add 1 to get the proper code (x1+x2).

So, looking at all the cases, it works out that whenever a carry-out occurs, (and you effectively subtract 65536 by discarding it) you need to add 1 to get the proper code to represent the sum.

When x1+x2 = 0 -- with one <0 and the other >0 - the sum of codes will always be 65535, which is left as is and is to be interpreted as zero ("-0").

When both are zero, you have three cases:

0 + 0 = 0 Fairly simple...

-0 + -0: codes are 0xFFFF + 0xFFFF = (carry+ 0xFFFE) = 0xFFFF after adding carry back in, interpreted as -0.

-0+ 0: codes are 0xFFFF + 0 = 0xFFFF (-0)

So the only case where the 1's complement sum is a 'proper' 0 is when both inputs are proper 0. All other cases adding up to zero give a '-0'.

Mathematically, you could say that 1's complement uses (c = x) mod 65535, with c constrained to 0...0xFFFF. And so the addition needs to be done modulo 65535. Each time you have a carryout, you subtract 65536 (by discarding it from the top) and add 1 (by adding it at the bottom); since you subtract 65535 in the process, the modulo 65535 value is preserved.