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What are the most common present day platforms, computer architectures, processors, operating systems and/or compilers that use either ones-complement or sign-magnitude integer representations?

phuclv
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Andrew Tomazos
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  • As noted in the [Wikipedia article on signed number representations](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signed_number_representations), Unisys' ClearPath Dorado (a.k.a. IX) series uses one's complement. The [Wikipedia page for the architecture](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIVAC_1100/2200_series) also indicates that it used a non-power-of-two word size (36 bits). (Javascript's use of DP FP even for "integer" values might *almost* be considered use of sign-magnitude integer representation, but that seems to be stretching things.) –  Jul 13 '14 at 22:22
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    Possible duplicate of [Are there any non-twos-complement implementations of C?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12276957/are-there-any-non-twos-complement-implementations-of-c) – phuclv Jun 26 '18 at 11:58

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NO common present day platforms uses anything other than 2s-complement to represent integers.

user3344003
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  • Technically, "most common" does not have to be common. –  Jul 13 '14 at 23:15
  • Every standard involving binary data (e.g., JPEG, GZIP) presumes the use of 2s-complement. The first computer I used was one of those 36-bit unisys's. They no longer exist, exempt in museums. – user3344003 Jul 13 '14 at 23:19
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    While there seems to be a push toward running legacy code on a software layer over x86 (this would still count as a "platform" even if not hardware), it seems that [hardware implementations are still being offered](http://www.unisys.com/unisys/theme/index.jsp?id=1120000970018010225). With such systems, the hardware tends to stay in use (with vendor support) significantly after the last new hardware is sold. As Santa Claus said in the M&Ms commercial: "They do exist!" –  Jul 13 '14 at 23:29