Here's how it works: An additional binary digit, the parity bit, is added to a group of bits that are moved together. This bit is used only for the purpose of identifying whether the bits being moved arrived successfully. Before the bits are sent, they are counted and if the total number of data bits is even, the parity bit is set to one so that the total number of bits transmitted will form an odd number. If the total number of data bits is already an odd number, the parity bit remains or is set to 0. At the receiving end, each group of incoming bits is checked to see if the group totals to an odd number. If the total is even, a transmission error has occurred and either the transmission is retried or the system halts and an error message is sent to the user.

The description above describes how parity checking works within a computer. Specifically, the Peripheral Component Interconnect bus and the I/O bus controller use the odd parity method of error checking. Parity bit checking is not an infallible error-checking method since it's possible that two bits could be in error in a transmission, offsetting each other. For transmissions within a personal computer, this possibility is considered extremely remote. In some large computer systems where data integrity is seen as extremely important, three bits are allocated for parity checking.

Parity checking is also used in communication between modems. Here, parity checking can be selected to be even (a successful transmission will form an even number) or odd. Users may also select no parity , meaning that the modems will not transmit or check a parity bit. When no parity is selected (or defaulted), it's assumed that there are other forms of checking that will detect any errors in transmission. No parity also usually means that the parity bit can be used for data, speeding up transmission. In modem-to-modem communication, the type of parity is coordinated by the sending and receiving modems before the transmission takes place.

Last updated on: May 04, 2005