A numbering system that uses base 16 to represent memory addresses is known as:

• A. Hexadecimal Addressing
• B. Decimal Addressing
• C. Binary Addressing
• D. Octal Addressing

Answer: (A)

Representing memory addresses in base 16 is called hexadecimal addressing. Hexadecimal uses sixteen symbols (0–9 and A–F), and each hex digit corresponds to four bits. Since a byte is eight bits, two hex digits map neatly to one byte, making addresses shorter and easier to read than long binary strings. This nibble-based representation lines up directly with the binary structure of memory, which is why hex is preferred for memory addresses, debugging, and hardware documentation. Decimal addressing would be much longer and harder to read, binary addressing is exact but unwieldy due to long strings of 0s and 1s, and octal is less commonly used for modern memory addresses.