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 (Eng. Werner Buchholz) when designing the first IBM 7030 Stretch supercomputer for a bunch of bits simultaneously transmitted in I / O devices from one to six. Later, within the same project, the byte was extended to eight bits. Word byte was chosen as a deliberately distorted word bite, pronounced the same way (eng. bite - “piece”; “part of something separated in one bite”; compare the name that also appeared later for the 4-bit unit “nibble" from English nibble - "bite"). Changed spelling byte through y instead of i was required to avoid confusion with the word "bit" ( bit) . Word in print 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 Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of October 31, 2009 No. 879. In addition, the tradition of using SI prefixes along with the name "byte" to indicate factors that are powers of two (1 KB \u003d 1024 bytes, 1 MB = 1024 KB, 1 GB = 1024 MB etc., with an uppercase “K” used instead of a lowercase “k”), 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 designate a byte complies with the requirements of GOST and avoids confusion between abbreviations for bytes and bits. An entry with a lowercase letter in the form of "Kb" (Mb, Gb) to denote a byte will not comply with the international IEC standard (and GOST localized according to it). However, the authors of the spelling dictionary cite the lowercase form "b" (and "KB", "MB", "GB") for the byte, as not formed from the surname.

It should be borne in mind that in GOST 8.417, in addition to “bit”, there is no single-letter designation for a bit, so using a record 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.

In the international standard IEC IEC 60027-2 of 2005 for use in electrical and electronic fields Recommended designations:

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

declination

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. Similarly, for example, with kilograms: regular form the genitive case is used if there is no numeral, and in combination with the numeral there may be options: 16 kilograms (stylistically neutral regular form) and 16 kilograms (colloquial countable form).

All photos, text documents and programs are stored in computer memory as bits and bytes. What are these smallest units of information and how many bits are in a byte?

Storing data in memory

Computer memory is a huge collection of cells filled with zeros and ones. A cell is the minimum amount of data that a reader can access. Physically, it is a trigger (in modern computers). The trigger is so small that it is difficult to see even under a microscope. Each cell has a unique address at which one or another program finds it.

Under the cell in most cases understand one byte. But, depending on the bitness of the architecture, it can combine 2, 4 or 8 bytes. Byte is perceived electronic devices as a whole, but in fact it consists of even smaller cells - bits. In 1 byte, you can encode any character, for example, a letter or number, while 1 bit is not enough for this.

Controllers rarely operate on individual bits, although it is technically possible. Instead, it refers to whole bytes or even groups of bytes.

What is a beat?

Often, a bit is understood as a unit of information. Such a definition cannot be called accurate, because the very concept of information is rather vague. More correctly, a bit is a letter computer alphabet. The word "bit" comes from the English expression "binary digit", which literally means "binary digit".

The alphabet of computers is simple and consists of only two characters: 1 and 0 (the presence or absence of a signal, true or false). This set is quite enough to logically describe anything. The third state, which is understood as the silence of the computer (the termination of transmission of signals), is a myth.

The letter itself does not carry any value in terms of information: looking at one or zero, it is impossible to even understand what kind of data this value refers to. And photos, and texts, and programs ultimately consist of ones and zeros. Therefore, a bit is inconvenient as an independent unit. Therefore, bits must be combined in order to encode useful information with their help.

What is a byte?

If a bit is a letter, then a byte is like a word. One byte can contain text character, an integer, part of a large number, two small numbers, etc. Thus, a byte already contains meaningful information, albeit in a small amount.

Novice programmers and just curious users are interested in how many bits are in 1 byte. In modern computers, one byte is always equal to eight bits.

If a bit can only take on two values, then a combination of eight bits can create 256 different combinations. The number 256 is formed by raising two to the eighth power (according to how many bits are in a byte).

One bit is 1 or 0. Two bits can already create combinations: 00, 01, 10 and 11. When it comes to 8 bits, then there are just 256 options for combining zeros and ones in the range 00000000 ... 11111111. If you remember , how many values ​​\u200b\u200bcan take and how many bits are contained in one byte, then remembering this figure will be very easy.

Each combination of characters can carry different information depending on the encoding (ASCII, Unicode, etc.). That is why users are faced with the fact that information entered in Russian is sometimes displayed in the form of intricate characters.

Features of the binary number system

The binary system has all the same properties as the decimal system we are used to: numbers consisting of ones and zeros can be added, subtracted, multiplied, etc. The only difference is that the system does not consist of 10, but only of 2 digits. That is why it is convenient to use it to encrypt information.

At any positional number consist of digits: units, tens, hundreds, etc. decimal system maximum value one bit is 9, and in the binary system - 1. Since one bit can only take two values, binary numbers quickly increase in length. For example, the number 9 familiar to us will be written as 1001. This means that the nine will be written in four characters, while one binary character will correspond to one bit.

Why is information encrypted in binary form?

The decimal system is convenient for input and output of information, and the binary system is for organizing the process of its transformation. Also very popular are systems that contain eight and sixteen characters: they translate machine codes into a convenient form.

The binary system is the most convenient in terms of logic. One conditionally means "yes": there is a signal, the statement is true, etc. Zero is associated with the value "no": the value is false, there is no signal, etc. Any open-ended question can be converted into one or more questions with answer options "yes" " or not". A third option, such as "unknown", would be completely useless.

In the course of development computer technology three-digit capacities for storing information, which are called trits, were also developed. They can take three values: 0 - container is empty, 1 - container is half full and 2 - container is full. However, the binary system turned out to be simpler and more logical, so it gained much more popularity.

How many bits were in a byte before?

Previously, it was impossible to say unambiguously how many bits are in a byte. Initially, a byte was understood as a machine word, that is, the number of bits that a computer can process in one working cycle (tact). When computers were not yet placed in offices, different microprocessors worked with bytes of various sizes. A byte could include 6 bits, and for the first IBM models, its size reached 9 bits.

Today, 8-bit bytes have become so commonplace that even the definition of a byte often says that it is a unit of information consisting of 8 bits. However, on some architectures, a byte is 32 bits and acts as a machine word. Such architectures are used in some supercomputers and signal processors, but not in our usual computers, laptops and mobile phones.

Why won the eight-bit standard?

Bytes acquired an eight-bit size thanks to a platform with the most popular 8-bit Intel processor 8086. The prevalence of this model contributed to the fact that in the 1970s. 8 bits per byte has actually become the standard value.

The eight-bit standard is convenient in that it allows you to store two decimal characters in 1 byte. With a 6-bit system, it is possible to store one digit, while 2 bits are superfluous. In 9 bits, you can write 2 digits, but there is still one extra bit. The number 8 is the third power of two, which provides additional convenience.

Areas of use of bits and bytes

Many users are wondering: how not to confuse bits and bytes? First of all, you need to pay attention to how the designation is written: a byte is abbreviated as a capital letter "B" (in English - "B"). Accordingly, a small letter "b" ("b") serves to designate a bit.

However, there is always the possibility that the case is incorrect (for example, some programs automatically convert all text to lower or upper case). In this case, you should know what is customary to measure in bits, and what - in bytes.

Traditionally, bytes measure volumes: hard size disk, flash drive and any other media will be specified in bytes and larger units, for example, gigabytes.

Bits are used for The amount of information that a channel passes, Internet speed, etc. are measured in bits and derived units, such as megabits. File download speed is also always displayed in bits.

If desired, you can convert bits to bytes or vice versa. To do this, it is enough to remember how many bits are in a byte and perform a simple mathematical calculation. Bits are converted to bytes by dividing by eight, and reversed by multiplying by the same number.

What is a machine word?

A machine word is information stored in a memory cell. It represents the maximum sequence of units of information that is processed as a whole.

Corresponds to which for a long time was equal to 16 bits. Most modern computers it is 64 bits, although there are both shorter (32 bits) and longer machine words. In this case, the number of bits that form a machine word is always a multiple of eight and can be easily converted into bytes.

For a particular computer, the word length is unchanged and refers to the series the most important characteristics"gland".

What is now measured in bits and bytes? The average PC user has practically forgotten about such units of information. And I would have completely forgotten if it were not 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 figure by a thousand. Trying to figure it out, the user divides, multiplies and finally gets confused in the wilds of arithmetic. Let's take the key concepts - bit and byte - and see what sauce they are eaten with.

Definition

Bit- the minimum unit of measurement of the amount of information (like a letter in linguistics). In the binary number system, a bit is equal to one bit.

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

Comparison

One byte has 8 bits. A bit can be 0 or 1, a byte can be from 0 to 256. When it comes to data transfer rates, bit/s and byte/s (Kbps and Kbps respectively) are quite different. In kilobits, the connection speed is considered, or the amount of information received / transmitted per unit of time. In kilobytes, the speed of downloading files is usually displayed. Thus, with a connection speed of 128 Kbps, the download speed (in ideal conditions) will be 16 Kb / s, that is, a 160 Kb document will be loaded in 10 seconds.

Findings site

1. Bit - the minimum unit of measure, byte - a unit of storage and processing of digital information
2. One byte has 8 bits
3. When determining the connection speed, they usually operate in bits, the speed of downloading files - bytes.

In today's article, we will deal with the measurement of information. All pictures, sounds and video clips that we see on monitor screens are nothing more than numbers. And these numbers can be measured, and, now, you will learn how to convert megabits to megabytes and megabytes to gigabytes.

If it is important for you to know how many mb in 1 GB or how many KB in 1 mb, then this article is for you. Most often, such data is needed by programmers who evaluate the volume occupied by their programs, but sometimes it does not interfere with ordinary users to estimate the size of downloaded or stored data.

In short, it is enough to know this:

1 byte = 8 bits

1 kilobyte = 1024 bytes

1 megabyte = 1024 kilobytes

1 gigabyte = 1024 megabytes

1 terabyte = 1024 gigabytes

Common abbreviations: kilobyte=kb, megabyte=mb, gigabyte=gb.

Recently I received a question from my reader: "What is more kb or mb?". Hopefully now everyone knows the answer.

Information units in detail

In the information world, the decimal system of measurement, which is familiar to us, is not used, but binary. This means that one digit can take on a value not from 0 to 9, but from 0 to 1.

The simplest unit of information is 1 bit, it can be 0 or 1. But this value is very small for the modern amount of data, so bits are rarely used. Bytes are more commonly used, 1 byte is equal to 8 bits and can take a value from 0 to 15 ( hexadecimal system calculus). True, instead of numbers 10-15, letters from A to F are used.

But even these volumes of data are small, therefore, the prefixes familiar to everyone are used: kilo- (thousand), mega- (million), giga- (billion).

It is worth noting that in the information world, a kilobyte is not equal to 1000 bytes, but 1024. And if you want to know how many kilobytes are in a megabyte, then you will also get the number 1024. When asked how many megabytes are in a gigabyte, you will hear the same answer - 1024.

It is also determined by the feature binary system calculus. If, when using tens, we get each new digit by multiplying by 10 (1, 10, 100, 1000, etc.), then in the binary system a new digit appears after multiplying by 2.

It looks like this:

2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024

A number consisting of 10 binary digits can have as few as 1024 values. This is more than 1000, but closest to the usual prefix kilo-. Mega- and giga and tera-are applied in a similar way.

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

Information is all that you could see, hear or read. Volumes of information are constantly growing, and every day faster and faster, so there is a problem of storing and systematizing it, so that later you can easily find something. Mankind has gone from rock records and parchment to digital storage media, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to understand information storage devices.

It has been mentioned more than once that a computer processes information with the help 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 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: the information is stored in the book in the form of text, and the book is on the shelf in the library. How could you have read information in a computer is stored on media. For example, HDD(we read about him) in the system unit (he is in the photo)

We can only read what is on the sticker, and even then the meaning of most of the inscriptions is not clear. However, this small piece of iron, which can be put in your pocket, can store millions of books and documents, thousands of images, audio and video recordings. In what way? 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, well, or a small or large voltage, respectively. Thus, the computer can perceive information about the presence or absence of a signal as "yes" or "no" or, in digital terms, 0 or 1. Thus, we have a simple system of zero and one, which is called binary since there are only two digits. One digit (0 or 1) is called bit is the smallest unit of computer information. Her computer can store and transmit. However, this is very little, how to store, for example, words?

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

You have probably heard about Morse code, where combinations of long and short signals (dots and dashes) were deciphered into words. And if we take a combination of 8 digits, 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 is called a byte. Thus 8 bits in a byte. It is not necessary to keep this in mind or learn by heart, you can work on a computer without such knowledge, but you still have to evaluate the size of the information. It is difficult to measure information in bits and even bytes, because the volume of information is much larger.

What are kilobyte, megabyte and gigabyte. How to convert kilobytes to megabytes and gigabytes to megabytes.

In decimal, we use prefixes to denote a large number. For example: the prefix kilo- means that the indicated 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 is difficult to get used to it at first, there is even such an anecdote:

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

- A programmer thinks that a kilogram of sausage is 1024 grams, and an ordinary person thinks that a kilobyte is 1000 bytes.

The prefix mega suggests 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 to convert gigabytes to megabytes you need to multiply them by 1024. It was proposed to eliminate confusion by using “bi” for binary prefixes, but kibibyte and mebibyte do not sound very pleasant and unusual, so they have not yet taken root.

In order to understand what will be the thing familiar to us in in electronic format(in terms of volume), I will give approximate figures:

• The content of the printed sheet A4 - 100 kilobytes

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

• Medium quality photo - 1-1.5 megabytes

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

From this article you learned:

• What is information
• How information is represented in a computer
• What is a beat
• What is a byte
• What are the prefixes for measuring large amounts of information
• How to convert kilobytes to megabytes
• How many megabytes in a gigabyte and much more