⁷⁸Recall that each ASCII character requires 7 bits to encode. This impacts nearly every portion of the Modbus data frame. Slave address and function code portions, for example, require 14 bits each in ASCII but only 8 bits each in RTU. The data portion of a Modbus ASCII frame requires one ASCII character (7 bits) to represent each hexadecimal symbol that in turn represents just 4 bits of actual data. The data portion of a Modbus RTU frame, by contrast, codes the data bits directly (i.e. 8 bits of data appear as 8 bits within that portion of the frame). Additionally, RTU data frames use quiet periods (pauses) as delimiters, while ASCII data frames use three ASCII characters in total to mark the start and stop of each frame, at a “cost” of 21 additional bits. These additional delimiting bits do serve a practical purpose, though: they format each Modbus ASCII data frame as its own line on the screen of a terminal program.