What are bits and bytes in computer science. How many megabytes are in a gigabyte, bits in a byte (or kilobyte) and what kind of units of information are they? Binary and decimal number systems

Byte(byte) - a unit of storage and processing of digital information. Most often, a byte is considered to be eight bits, in which case it can take one of 256 (2'8) different values. In order to emphasize that an eight-bit byte is meant, the term “octet” (Latin octet) is used in the description of network protocols.

Kilobyte(kB, KB, KB) m., skl. - a unit of measurement of the amount of information, equal to 1000 or 1024 (2’10) standard (8-bit) bytes, depending on the context. Used to indicate the amount of memory in various electronic devices.
1 kilobyte (KB) = 8 kilobits (KB)

Megabyte(MB, M, MB) m., skl. - a unit of measurement of the amount of information equal, depending on the context, to 1,000,000 (10’6) or 1,048,576 (2’20) standard (8-bit) bytes.

Gigabyte(GB, G, GB) - a multiple unit of measurement of the amount of information, equal to 2’30 standard (8-bit) bytes or 1024 megabytes. Used to indicate the amount of memory in various electronic devices.

Terabyte(TB, TB) m., skl. - a unit of measurement of the amount of information equal to 1,099,511,627,776 (2’40) standard (8-bit) bytes or 1024 gigabytes. Used to indicate the amount of memory in various electronic devices.

Petabyte(PByte, PB) m., skl. - a unit of measurement of the amount of information equal to 25’0 standard (8-bit) bytes or 1024 terabytes. Used to indicate the amount of memory in various electronic devices.

Exabyte(Ebyte, E, EB) - a unit of measurement of the amount of information equal to 26’0 standard (8-bit) bytes or 1024 petabytes. Used to indicate the amount of memory in various electronic devices.

Zettabyte(Zbyte, Z, ZB) - a unit of measurement of the amount of information equal to 27’0 standard (8-bit) bytes or 1024 exabytes. Used to indicate the amount of memory in various electronic devices.

Yottabyte(Ybyte, Y, YB) - a unit of measurement of the amount of information equal to 1024 standard (8-bit) bytes or 1000 zettabytes. Used to indicate the amount of memory in various electronic devices.

1 Yottabyte can be represented as:

103 = 1,000 Zettabytes

106 = 1,000,000 Exabytes

109 = 1,000,000,000 Petabytes

1012 = 1,000,000,000,000 Terabytes

1015 = 1,000,000,000,000,000 Gigabytes

1018 = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 Megabytes

1021 = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Kilobytes

1024 = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Bytes

Converter of quantities byte, bit, kilobit, kilobyte, megabit, megabyte, gigabit, gigabyte, terabit, terabyte, petabit, petabyte, exbit, exbyte

7.2 terabytes for one the size of a regular DVD disc

Australian researchers have created technology that theoretically allows 7.2 terabytes of data to be written onto a single disc the size of a regular DVD. This was reported by Nature News, and the researchers' article appeared in the journal Nature.

In modern DVD drives, information is recorded using a laser beam that burns indentations on the surface of the disc. The new technology works in a similar way. The main difference is that instead of creating indentations on the surface of the disk, gold nanopins melt.

Scientists were able to achieve such a high density of information recording using several technical techniques. First, the researchers used lasers of multiple colors. The fact is that rays of a certain wavelength affect only pins with a certain ratio of length and thickness. Second, the researchers used beams with different polarizations that hit pins oriented in a specific way.

Using rays of different colors and different polarizations, it seems possible to record information on the same region of the disk several times. For example, two polarizations and three colors (for a total of six possible combinations) can store 1.6 terabytes of data on a DVD-sized disc. If you add another polarization option, you get a 7.2 terabyte drive.

To read the information, the researchers use a weak laser beam that does not melt the nanopins. In this case, the output produces a readable signal: it has been empirically established that nanopins “respond” to a weak laser much better than, for example, spherical nanoparticles into which the pins turn after melting.

Weak side new technology is that the researchers use laser pulses of very short duration - on the order of several femtoseconds. Such lasers are expensive and difficult to manufacture. Scientists hope that further development technology will overcome this limitation. They expect industrial use of their discovery to begin around the 2020s. ♌

Catching Goldfish on the Internet

Units for measuring the amount of information Basic: 1 bit - 0 or 1 1 byte = 8 bits Derivatives: 1 KB (Kilobyte) = 1024 bytes 1 MB (Megabyte) = 1024 KB 1 GB (Gigabyte) = 1024 MB 1 TB (Terabyte) = 1024 GB Larger: 1 Petabyte, 1 Exabyte, 1 Zetabyte, 1 Yotabyte

Bit Bit Byte Byte KilobyteKilobyte Megabyte Megabyte Gigabyte Gigabyte ... into smaller units - MULTIPLY by... *8 *1024 *1024 *1024 /8 /1024 /1024 /1024 ...into larger units - DIVIDE by... Example: 725 bytes = 725 * 8 = 5800 bits 725 bytes = 725 / 1024 = 0.7 Kilobytes Converting information units

1) How many bits are in 1 Kilobyte? 2) How many bytes and bits are there in 5 Kilobytes? 3) Convert 7200 bits to bytes and Kilobytes * 8 = 8192 bits 5 * 1024 = 5120 bytes 5120 * 8 = bits 7200 / 8 = 900 bytes 900 / 1024 = 0.88 KB Solve the problems:

5) Convert 1536 MB to Kilobytes and Gigabytes 0.5 * 1024 = 512 Kilobytes 512 * 1024 = byte * 8 = bit 4) Convert 0.5 Megabytes to Kilobytes, bytes and bits 1536 * 1024 = Kilobyte 1536 / 1024 = 1, 5 Gigabytes

6) How many times is 1 Kilobit 1 Kilobit? 1024 times (compare the prefixes Kilo- and Mega-) 1 Kilobit? 1024 times (compare the prefixes Kilo- and Mega-)"> 1 Kilobit? 1024 times (compare the prefixes Kilo- and Mega-)"> 1 Kilobit? 1024 times (compare the prefixes Kilo- and Mega-)" title="6) How many times is 1 Kilobit 1 Kilobit? 1024 times (compare the prefixes Kilo- and Mega-)"> title="6) How many times is 1 Kilobit 1 Kilobit? 1024 times (compare the prefixes Kilo- and Mega-)"> !}

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8) Petya Knopkin bought a new film in Blu-ray format capacity of 25 GB, and on his friend Kolya Myshkin’s computer there is still a byte free on the hard drive. Will Kolya be able to record a film on his hard drive? Solution: 1) Translate big number in KB MB GB / 1024 / 1024 / 1024 = 30 GB The film will fit, because 25

In most computing architectures, a byte is the smallest independently addressable set of data.

Story

The name "byte" was first used in June 1956 by W. Buchholz. Werner Buchholz) when designing the first supercomputer IBM 7030 Stretch for a bunch of bits from one to six simultaneously transmitted in I/O devices. Later, as part of the same project, the byte was expanded to eight bits. Word byte was chosen as a deliberately distorted word bite, pronounced the same way (English bite - “piece”; “part of something, separated in one bite”; cf. also the name that appeared later for the 4-bit unit “nibble" from the English nibble - “bite”). Changed spelling byte through y instead of i was required to avoid confusion with the word "bit" ( bit) . In print the word byte first appeared in June 1959.

Designation

The use of the Russian capital letter “B” to designate a byte is regulated by the Interstate (CIS) standard GOST 8.417-2002 (“Units of quantities”) in “Appendix A” and the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of October 31, 2009 No. 879. In addition, the tradition of use is stated SI prefixes along with the name “byte” to indicate factors that are powers of two (1 KB = 1024 bytes, 1 MB = 1024 KB, 1 GB = 1024 MB etc., and instead of a lowercase “k”, a capital “K” is used), and it is mentioned that such use of SI prefixes is not correct. According to GOST IEC 60027-2-2015, lowercase “k” corresponds to 1000 and “Ki” - 1024, so 1 KiB = 1024 B, 1 kB = 1000 B.

The use of the capital letter “B” to denote a byte complies with GOST requirements and avoids confusion between the abbreviations for byte and bit. Recording with lowercase letter in the form of “KB” (MB, GB) to designate a byte will not comply with the international IEC standard (and GOST localized according to it). However, the authors of the spelling dictionary give the lowercase form “b” (and “Kb”, “MB”, “GB”) for byte, as not derived from the surname.

It should be taken into account that in GOST 8.417, in addition to “bit,” there is no single-letter designation for bit, so using an entry like “Mb” as a synonym for “Mbit” does not comply with this standard. But some documents use the abbreviation b for bit: IEEE 1541-2002, IEEE Std 260.1-2004, in lower case: GOST R IEC 80000-13-2016, GOST IEC 60027-2-2015.

The international standard IEC 60027-2 from 2005 recommends the following symbols for use in electrical and electronic fields:

• bit - for bit;
• o, B - for octet, byte. Moreover, o is the only indicated designation in French.

Declension

In addition to the usual form of the genitive plural (bytes, kilobytes, bits), there is a counting form “byte”, which is used in combination with numerals: 8 bytes, 16 kilobytes. The counting form is colloquial. In the same way, for example, with kilograms: regular form the genitive case is used if there is no numeral, and in combination with the numeral there can be options: 16 kilograms (stylistically neutral regular form) and 16 kilograms (colloquial counting form).

As you know, a computer operates with information, but obviously not in the same way as we do. How and how to measure this information? What is information? Let's find out! For those who need to translate bits, bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, I have made a convenient “counter” that you can download at the end of the article.

Information- this is everything that you could see, hear or read. Volumes of information are constantly growing, and every day faster and faster, so the problem of storing and systematizing it arises, so that later you can easily find something. Humanity has evolved from rock records and parchment to digital storage media, but understanding storage devices is becoming increasingly difficult.

It has been mentioned more than once that the computer processes information with the help of, that it is transmitted from device to device in system unit using cables. You also already know that there are, for example, input devices (keyboard and mouse, for example), with the help of which we can give commands to the computer, which means they also transmit some information. To do this, they connect to . We have already learned how to connect some devices. And finally, the processed information is used by us. For example, it returns to us through output devices, an example of which is the image on the monitor. We are all accustomed to information, such as letters in a book, our entries in a diary. Everything is simple here: information is stored in a book in the form of text, and the book is on a shelf in the library. And as you may have already read, information on a computer is stored on storage media. For example, HDD(we read about it) in the system unit (it’s in the photo)

We can only read what is on the sticker, and even then the meaning of most of the inscriptions is unclear. However, this small piece of hardware, which can be put in your pocket, can store millions of books and documents, thousands of images, audio and video recordings. How? The fact is that a computer is a machine, current flows through the wires, and the computer cannot perceive the same book or the world around us as we do. But it can perfectly determine whether there is a signal or not, or whether the voltage is low or high, respectively. Thus, the computer can perceive information about the presence or absence of a signal as “yes” or “no” or, in digital equivalent, 0 or 1. Thus, we have a simple system of zero and one, which is called binary, since there are only two numbers. One digit (0 or 1) is called bit is the smallest unit computer information . Her computer can store and transmit. However, this is very little; how can we store, for example, words?

What is a byte? How many bits are in a byte?

You've probably heard of Morse code, where combinations of long and short signals (dots and dashes) are decoded into words. And if we take a combination of 8 numbers, each of which can be one or zero, we get 256 combinations, which is enough to display both numbers and letters, and more than one alphabet. And these 8 bits are called a byte. Thus there are 8 bits in a byte. You don’t have to keep this in your head or learn it by heart; you can work on a computer without such knowledge, but you still have to estimate the size of the information. Measuring information in bits and even bytes is difficult, because the volume of information is much larger.

What are kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes? How to convert kilobytes to megabytes and gigabytes to megabytes.

In the decimal system, we use prefixes to indicate a large number. For example: the prefix kilo- means that the specified number must be multiplied by a thousand. 1 kilogram = 1000 grams. But a kilobyte is not a thousand bytes, and 2 to the power of 10, that is, 1024 bytes, which is not entirely correct. It’s a little difficult to get used to at first, there’s even this joke:

— What is the difference between a programmer and an ordinary person?

— The programmer thinks that a kilogram of sausage is 1024 grams, but a common person thinks that a kilobyte is 1000 bytes.

The prefix mega means a million, but megabyte is again 1024 kilobytes or 1048576 bytes. As you can see, a megabyte is larger than a kilobyte. A gigabyte is 1024 megabytes= 1048576 kilobytes = 1073741824 bytes. A terabyte is 1024 gigabytes respectively.

Here are the most common units for measuring the amount of information. To convert kilobytes to megabytes, you need to divide them by 1024, and in order convert gigabytes to megabytes you need to multiply them by 1024. It was proposed to use “bi” for binary prefixes to eliminate confusion, but kibibyte and mebibyte do not sound very pleasant and unusual, so they have not yet taken root.

To understand what a thing familiar to us will look like in in electronic format(in terms of volume), I’ll give approximate figures:

• Contents of printed A4 sheet - 100 kilobytes

• 1.5 hours of film in low (for modern standards) quality - 1.5 gigabytes. In high there can be 40 gigabytes.

• Medium quality photo - 1-1.5 megabytes

• Average quality audio recording 3-5 minutes - 10 megabytes

From this article you learned:

• What is information
• How information is represented on a computer
• What is a beat
• What is a byte
• What attachments are there for measuring large quantities of information?
• How to convert kilobytes to megabytes
• How many megabytes are in a gigabyte and much more

What is measured in bits and bytes these days? The average PC user has practically forgotten about such units of measurement of information. And I would have completely forgotten if it weren’t for the confusion between kilobits and kilobytes in which travel speeds on the Internet are measured. Meanwhile, since school, everyone knows that the prefix kilo multiplies the original indicator by a thousand. Trying to figure it out, the user divides, multiplies and finally gets confused in the jungle of arithmetic. Let's take on the key concepts - bit and byte - and see in what sauce they are eaten.

Definition

Bit- the minimum unit of measurement of the amount of information (similar to a letter in linguistics). IN binary system numbering bit is equal to one digit.

Byte- a unit of storage and processing of digital information, which is a collection of bits that the system can process simultaneously (in linguistics it would be called a word).

Comparison

One byte has 8 bits. A bit can have a value of 0 or 1, a byte can have a value from 0 to 256. When it comes to data transfer rates, the values ​​of bps and bytes/s (Kbps and KB/s, respectively) are significantly different. Kilobits are the connection speed, or the amount of information received/transmitted per unit of time. The speed of downloading files is usually displayed in kilobytes. Thus, with a connection speed of 128 Kbps, the download speed (in ideal conditions) will be 16 Kbps, that is, a document of 160 Kb in size will be downloaded in 10 seconds.

Conclusions website

1. Bit is the minimum unit of measurement, byte is a unit of storage and processing of digital information
2. There are 8 bits in one byte
3. When determining the connection speed, they usually operate in bits, and the speed of downloading files - in bytes.