Difference between revisions of "byte"
m |
m |
||
Line 10: | Line 10: | ||
so used a lot. |
so used a lot. |
||
===Decimal multiples=== |
===Decimal multiples=== |
||
− | As in physics, the standard SI (or metric) prefixes k, M, G are used to indicate 10^3, 10^6 and 10^9, so |
+ | As in physics, the standard [SI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_System_of_Units] (or metric) prefixes k, M, G are used to indicate 10^3, 10^6 and 10^9, so |
1kB = 1000 Bytes |
1kB = 1000 Bytes |
||
1MB = 1000'000 Bytes |
1MB = 1000'000 Bytes |
Revision as of 19:39, 7 July 2019
A byte consists of 8-bits. A byte is in many systems the basic unit of data that can be accessed or transferred. In some literature a byte is called Octet. Consisting of 8 bits, a byte can represent 2⁸ = 256 different values, ranging from 0 ... 255. The value of a byte can be conveniently shown in hex, with values ranging from 0 ... FF.
Contents
Unit symbol
The unit symbol for byte is uppercase letter B, in contrast to the unit symbol for bit, which is lowercase b.
Unit multiples
2^10 = 1024 is very close to 1000. In computers, multiples of powers of 2 are "natural" values, so used a lot.
Decimal multiples
As in physics, the standard [SI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_System_of_Units] (or metric) prefixes k, M, G are used to indicate 10^3, 10^6 and 10^9, so
1kB = 1000 Bytes 1MB = 1000'000 Bytes 1GB = 1000'000'000 Bytes
Binary multiples
The difference between the binary multiples and the decimal equivalents is not very big (2.4%) for k, but it goes up for the larger ones. Unfortunately, despite standardization efforts there is no clear standard for the binary prefixes. The following are used most commonly, leaving room for interpretation for M and G:
1KB = 1024 Bytes 1MB = 1024^2 = 1'048'576 Bytes 1GB = 1024^3 = 1'073'741'824 Bytes
A way to eliminate all confusion (that stems from the ambiguous M and G) is to use the dedicated binary prefixes:
1KiB = 1024 Bytes 1MiB = 1024^2 = 1'048'576 Bytes 1GiB = 1024^3 = 1'073'741'824 Bytes
More information
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_System_of_Units