Difference between revisions of "Byte"
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| − | In computing terms, ''' | + | In computing terms, '''byte''' refers to a unit of data that is eight binary (bits) digits long. Thus it has 2<sup>8</sup> = 256 different values that can be logically mapped to represent letters, numbers or symbols (for example, "a", "7", or "@"). |
The word was coined by Dr. Werner Buchholz of [[IBM]] in 1956 <ref>http://members.aol.com/jeff570/b.html</ref>. | The word was coined by Dr. Werner Buchholz of [[IBM]] in 1956 <ref>http://members.aol.com/jeff570/b.html</ref>. | ||
Revision as of 00:34, March 20, 2008
In computing terms, byte refers to a unit of data that is eight binary (bits) digits long. Thus it has 28 = 256 different values that can be logically mapped to represent letters, numbers or symbols (for example, "a", "7", or "@"). The word was coined by Dr. Werner Buchholz of IBM in 1956 [1].
A byte is abbreviated with a "B". Computer storage space is usually measured in byte multiples, for example 100MB is equal to 100 million bytes - or megabytes - of data.
Other common abbreviations include:
kB = kilobyte = 1024 bytes
GB = gigabyte = 1 billion bytes (although this is an approximation) [2]
TB = terabyte = 1024 billion bytes (or 1024 GB)
PB = petabyte = 1024 TB
EB = exabyte = one billion gigabytes
Half a byte is referred to as a nibble[3]