Excess-3

Biased codes are a way to represent values with a balanced number of positive and negative numbers using a pre-specified number N as a biasing value. Biased codes (and Gray codes) are non-weighted codes. In excess-3 code, numbers are represented as decimal digits, and each digit is represented by four bits as the digit value plus 3 (the "excess" amount):

• The smallest binary number represents the smallest value (0 − excess).
• The greatest binary number represents the largest value (2^N+1 − excess − 1).

To encode a number such as 127, one simply encodes each of the decimal digits as above, giving (0100, 0101, 1010).

Excess-3 arithmetic uses different algorithms than normal non-biased BCD or binary positional system numbers. After adding two excess-3 digits, the raw sum is excess-6. For instance, after adding 1 (0100 in excess-3) and 2 (0101 in excess-3), the sum looks like 6 (1001 in excess-3) instead of 3 (0110 in excess-3). To correct this problem, after adding two digits, it is necessary to remove the extra bias by subtracting binary 0011 (decimal 3 in unbiased binary) if the resulting digit is less than decimal 10, or subtracting binary 1101 (decimal 13 in unbiased binary) if an overflow (carry) has occurred. (In 4-bit binary, subtracting binary 1101 is equivalent to adding 0011 and vice versa.)

The primary advantage of excess-3 coding over non-biased coding is that a decimal number can be nines' complemented (for subtraction) as easily as a binary number can be ones' complemented: just by inverting all bits. Also, when the sum of two excess-3 digits is greater than 9, the carry bit of a 4-bit adder will be set high. This works because, after adding two digits, an "excess" value of 6 results in the sum. Because a 4-bit integer can only hold values 0 to 15, an excess of 6 means that any sum over 9 will overflow (produce a carry-out).

Another advantage is that the codes 0000 and 1111 are not used for any digit. A fault in a memory or basic transmission line may result in these codes. It is also more difficult to write the zero pattern to magnetic media.

BCD 8-4-2-1 to excess-3 converter example in VHDL:

entity bcd8421xs3 is port ( a : in std_logic; b : in std_logic; c : in std_logic; d : in std_logic; an : buffer std_logic; bn : buffer std_logic; cn : buffer std_logic; dn : buffer std_logic; w : out std_logic; x : out std_logic; y : out std_logic; z : out std_logic ); end entity bcd8421xs3; architecture dataflow of bcd8421xs3 is begin an <= not a; bn <= not b; cn <= not c; dn <= not d; w <= (an and b and d ) or (a and bn and cn) or (an and b and c and dn); x <= (an and bn and d ) or (an and bn and c and dn) or (an and b and cn and dn) or (a and bn and cn and d); y <= (an and cn and dn) or (an and c and d ) or (a and bn and cn and dn); z <= (an and dn) or (a and bn and cn and dn); end architecture dataflow; -- of bcd8421xs3

• 3-of-6 code extension: The excess-3 code is sometimes also used for data transfer, then often expanded to a 6-bit code per CCITT GT 43 No. 1, where 3 out of 6 bits are set.
• 4-of-8 code extension: As an alternative to the IBM transceiver code (which is a 4-of-8 code with a Hamming distance of 2), it is also possible to define a 4-of-8 excess-3 code extension achieving a Hamming distance of 4, if only denary digits are to be transferred.