Sam Siewert

About Sam

Sam Siewert is the O'Connell Endowed Professor of computer science at California State University, Chico, where he teaches numeric and parallel computing, computer vision and machine learning. He has taught real-time embedded systems at the University of Colorado Boulder since 2000 and co-founded its Embedded Systems Engineering program. Both fields depend on how computers store numbers in binary, from fixed-width integers to floating point. He earned his PhD and MS in computer science at the University of Colorado Boulder and is a senior member of IEEE. On binarytranslator.ai he reviews the math behind the converters and the number system guides.

In Sam's words

In embedded systems a number is always a fixed number of bits. Once you see that, overflow, two's complement and rounding stop being surprises.

Tools Sam reviewed

Guides

Binary basics

MSB and LSB: most and least significant bits, signed integers and overflow

The MSB is the leftmost, highest-value bit and the LSB the rightmost. See what each tells you, how signed integers use the MSB as a sign bit, and how integer overflow wraps values around.9 min readBinary basics

What is hexadecimal? The base 16 number system explained

Hexadecimal is base 16, with digits 0 to 9 and A to F. See how place values work, why programmers use hex for bytes, the values worth knowing and how octal compares.7 min readProgramming

Base64 encode and decode in Python, JavaScript, Linux and PowerShell

Base64 one-liners for Python, the browser, Node.js, Linux, macOS and PowerShell, with a command builder and fixes for padding errors, echo newlines, line wrapping and UTF-16.13 min readProgramming

Python struct: pack and unpack binary data

The struct module packs Python numbers into bytes and unpacks them again. Format characters, byte order, alignment, a PNG header example, records, IPv4 and the common errors.11 min readBinary basics

Big endian vs little endian

What endianness means, how 0x12345678 sits in memory in each order, which processors and file formats use which, network byte order, hex dumps and code to convert.8 min readBinary basics

Binary subtraction

How to subtract binary numbers: the four rules, borrowing step by step, the two's complement and one's complement methods, common mistakes and practice problems with answers.7 min readBinary basics

Powers of 2

The full powers of 2 chart from 2^0 to 2^64, a calculator for any exponent, and why 256, 1,024 and 65,536 keep showing up in bytes, colors and file sizes.6 min readBinary basics

How to read binary

Split binary into bytes, add the place values under the 1s, then look the number up in the ASCII table. Worked examples, practice bytes and a live bit flipper.7 min read

Questions for Sam

Why does binary matter in your field?

Real-time embedded systems run on hardware where every value has a fixed width: 8, 16 or 32 bits. If a reading doesn't fit, it wraps around, and a system that controls something physical can't afford that. Students who can read the bits can find those bugs.

What do you check when you review a converter?

The edges of each width. The largest 8-bit unsigned value is 255 and the 8-bit signed range is -128 to 127. A good tool should say clearly when a value doesn't fit instead of quietly cutting it off.

Which topic do students find hardest?

Floating point. People expect 0.1 to be stored exactly, and in binary it can't be, because it repeats forever. Showing the actual bits is the fastest way I know to make that clear.