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bits, bytes, and other units of measure for digital information


Units of storage in computer

Understanding  bits, bytes, and other units used in computer system

what is a bit ?

A bit has only one of two values that is 0 or 1, where  electrical values of 0 stand for  off and 1 stand for on. It is a smallest unit of data on a system.It is binary digit.

what is a byte ?

A byte is collection of  8 bits . A byte store a single ASCII character.
An alphanumeric character lets says “A” is stored as 1 byte.
Example : To store the letter ‘R’ then it will store as  ‘01010010’ which is 8 bits and 1 byte.

A kilobyte (KB) is equal to  1,024 bytes.

bit vs byte

 

bits, bytes, and other units of measure for digital information

what is a bit

How many bits in a byte?

1 byte 8 bits

There is 8 bits in one byte

computer storage units smallest to largest

Computer memory and storage used megabytes (MB) and gigabytes (GB).

1MB = 1,024 kilobytes, or 1,048,576 (1024×1024) bytes.
1GB = 1,024 MB, or 1,073,741,824 (1024x1024x1024) bytes.
1 Terabyte (TB) = 1,024 GB.
1 Petabyte (PB) = 1,024 TB.
1 Exabyte (EB) = 1,024 PB.
1 Zettabyte (ZB) = 1,024 EB.
1 Yottabyte (YB) = 1,024 ZB.

Also there are Hellabyte or Brontobyte.

some unit which is used in computer system

1 kilobyte (KB) is equal to  1,024 bytes

1 megabyte (MB)  is equal to 1,048,576 bytes

1 gigabyte (GB)  is equal to 1,073,741,824 bytes

1 terabyte (TB)  is equal to 1,099,511,627,776 bytes

1 petabyte (PB)  is equal to 1,125,899,906,842,624 bytes

 

Understanding difference between Mbps and MBps?

Now understanding uppercase B (B) and lowercase b (b).

Uppercase B is stands for bytes and lowercase b stands for bits.

1MBps = 8Mbps

so 1Mbps=1/8*MBps

Example : 100 KB (kilobytes) = 800 Kb (kilobits).

Data SPEEDS are usually described in terms of BITS:

1,024 bits = 1 Kilobit
1,024Kb = 1 Megabit
1,024Mb = 1 Gigabit
1,024Gb = 1 Terabit

Mbps means megabits per second, here Mb means upload and download speeds.

MBps = Mega Bytes per second

Mbps = Mega bits per second

Example 100Mbps is only 12.5MBPS

Impotant Point to Remember :

Generally, Internet service providers show in Mbps.

Example : Speed upto 16 Mbps

But,

While you download from internet, it is in MB/s or KB/s (Bytes).

In short, 16 Mbps plan, your maximum download speed will be 2 MB/s.

 


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