The Most Significant Bit (MSB) is the leftmost bit in a binary number that represents the sign of the number. In a signed integer, the MSB is 1
for negative numbers and 0
for positive numbers.
For example, in an 8-bit signed integer:
- Decimal 5 →
00000101
(MSB is0
) - Decimal -5 →
11111011
(MSB is1
, two complement’s form)