ASCII - GCSE Computer Science Definition

ASCII is a character set used in computers and other electronic devices to represent and communicate text. Developed in the 1960s, it assigns a unique number to each letter, digit, punctuation mark, and control character, enabling computers to exchange information in a simple and consistent way. ASCII uses a 7-bit binary number for each character, allowing it to represent 128 different characters, which include the English alphabet (both uppercase and lowercase), numbers 0-9, and various symbols. For GCSE Computer Science students, understanding ASCII is crucial as it forms the foundation for more advanced character encoding systems and is essential for understanding how text is processed in computer systems.