Computer Engineering
When dimensioning computer components, the powers of two are frequently used as preferred numbers:
1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256 512 1024 ...Where a finer grading is needed, additional preferred numbers are obtained by multiplying a power of two with a small odd integer:
(×3) 6 12 24 48 96 192 384 768 1536 ... (×5) 10 20 40 80 160 320 640 1280 2560 ... (×7) 14 28 56 112 224 448 896 1792 3584 ...| 16: | 15: | 12: | |
|---|---|---|---|
| :8 | 2:1 | 3:2 | |
| :9 | 16:9 | 5:3 | 4:3 |
| :10 | 8:5 | 3:2 | |
| :12 | 4:3 | 5:4 | 1:1 |
In computer graphics, widths and heights of raster images are preferred to be multiples of 16, as many compression algorithms (JPEG, MPEG) divide color images into square blocks of that size. Black-and-white JPEG images are divided into 8x8 blocks. Screen resolutions often follow the same principle. Preferred aspect ratios have also an important influence here, e.g. 2:1, 3:2, 4:3, 5:3, 5:4, 8:5, 16:9.
Read more about this topic: Preferred Number
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