machine language

Computers.

a coding system built into the hardware of a computer, requiring no translation before being run.

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or machine code

Elemental language of computers, consisting of a string of 0s and 1s.

Because machine language is the lowest-level computer language and the only language that computers directly understand, a program written in a more sophisticated language (e.g., C, Pascal) must be converted to machine language prior to execution. This is done via a compiler or assembler. The resulting binary file (also called an executable file) can then be executed by the CPU. See also assembly language.

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▪ computing

      the numeric codes for the operations that a particular computer can execute directly. The codes are strings of 0s and 1s, or binary digits (binary number system) (“bits”), which are frequently converted both from and to hexadecimal (base 16) for human viewing and modification. Machine language instructions typically use some bits to represent operations, such as addition, and some to represent operands, or perhaps the location of the next instruction. Machine language is difficult to read and write, since it does not resemble conventional mathematical notation or human language, and its codes vary from computer to computer.

       assembly language is one level above machine language. It uses short mnemonic codes for instructions and allows the programmer to introduce names for blocks of memory that hold data. One might thus write “add pay, total” instead of “0110101100101000” for an instruction that adds two numbers.

      Assembly language is designed to be easily translated into machine language. Although blocks of data may be referred to by name instead of by their machine addresses, assembly language does not provide more sophisticated means of organizing complex information. Like machine language, assembly language requires detailed knowledge of a particular internal computer architecture. It is useful when such details are important, as in programming a computer to interact with input/output devices (input/output device) (printers, scanners, storage devices, and so forth).

David Hemmendinger

 

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