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paritymore about parity

parity

 

  3  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Parity  \Par"i*ty\,  n.  [L.  paritas  fr  par,  paris,  equal:  cf  F. 
  parit['e].  See  {Pair},  {Peer}  an  equal.] 
  The  quality  or  condition  of  being  equal  or  equivalent;  A  like 
  state  or  degree;  equality;  close  correspondence;  analogy;  as 
  parity  of  reasoning.  ``No  parity  of  principle.''  --De 
  Quincey. 
 
  Equality  of  length  and  parity  of  numeration.  --Sir  T. 
  Browne. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  parity 
  n  1:  (mathematics)  a  relation  between  a  pair  of  integers:  if  both 
  integers  are  odd  or  both  are  even  they  have  the  same 
  parity;  if  one  is  odd  and  the  other  is  even  they  have 
  different  parity 
  2:  (computer  science)  an  error  detection  procedure  in  which  a 
  bit  (0  or  1)  added  to  each  group  of  bits  so  that  it  will 
  have  either  an  odd  number  of  1's  or  an  even  number  of  1's; 
  e.g.,  if  the  parity  is  odd  then  any  group  of  bits  that 
  arrives  with  an  even  number  of  1's  must  contain  an  error 
  [syn:  {parity  bit}] 
  3:  parity  is  conserved  in  a  universe  in  which  the  laws  of 
  physics  are  the  same  in  a  right-handed  system  of 
  coordinates  as  in  a  left-handed  system  [syn:  {conservation 
  of  parity},  {space-reflection  symmetry},  {mirror  symmetry}] 
  4:  functional  equality 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  parity 
 
    An  extra  bit  added  to  a  {byte}  or 
  {word}  to  reveal  errors  in  storage  (in  {RAM}  or  {disk})  or 
  transmission.  Even  (odd)  parity  means  that  the  parity  bit  is 
  set  so  that  there  are  an  even  (odd)  number  of  one  bits  in  the 
  word  including  the  parity  bit.  A  single  parity  bit  can  only 
  reveal  single  bit  errors  since  if  an  even  number  of  bits  are 
  wrong  then  the  parity  bit  will  not  change.  Moreover,  it  is 
  not  possible  to  tell  which  bit  is  wrong  as  it  is  with  more 
  sophisticated  {error  detection  and  correction}  systems. 
 
  See  also  {longditudinal  parity},  {checksum},  {cyclic 
  redundancy  check}. 
 
  (1996-03-01)




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