Representation of signed integer               

We know that for n-bit number, the range for natural number is from .

There are three different schemes to represent negative number:

• Signed-Magnitude form.
• 1’s complement form.
• 2’s complement form.

Signed magnitude form:

In signed-magnitude form, one particular bit is used to indicate the sign of the number, whether it is a positive number or a negative number. Other bits are used to represent the magnitude of the number.

For an n-bit number, one bit is used to indicate the signed information and remaining (n-1) bits are used to represent the magnitude. Therefore, the range is from .

Generally, Most Significant Bit (MSB) is used to indicate the sign and it is termed as signed bit. 0 in signed bit indicates positive numvber and 1 in signed bit indicates negative number.