3. Low level language

At the most basic level. computers only understand one 'language' namely a series of binary 1s and 0s which is also known as machine code.

A computer program in binary looks like: 0010110101010101010101001010100001111111010101011

This looks like gibberish to a person, but the computer could be playing some music or running a computer game - its all the same to the machine.

Machine Code is a 'Low Level Language'. A low level language creates instructions that directly control the CPU of a computer.

Advantages of Machine Code

• Runs very fast compared to the code created by other types of programming language
• Controls the computer directly
• Each instruction only does one thing

Disadvantages of Machine Code

• It is specific to the CPU: each computer chip type has its own machine code
• Very difficult for a person to read machine code and understand the purpose of what it is doing
• Very slow to program in machine code as it instructs the CPU in hte most minute nit-picking detail