Difference between revisions of "Byte"
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m (1024, not 1000. Computers know 10 best, not base 10.) |
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Other common abbreviations include:<br /> | Other common abbreviations include:<br /> | ||
| − | kB = kilobyte = | + | kB = kilobyte = 1024 bytes<br /> |
GB = gigabyte = 1 billion bytes (although this is an approximation) <ref>http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid5_gci212194,00.html</ref><br /> | GB = gigabyte = 1 billion bytes (although this is an approximation) <ref>http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid5_gci212194,00.html</ref><br /> | ||
| − | TB = terabyte = | + | TB = terabyte = 1024 billion bytes (or 1024 GB)<br /> |
| − | PB = petabyte = | + | PB = petabyte = 1024 TB<br /> |
EB = exabyte = one billion gigabytes<br /> | EB = exabyte = one billion gigabytes<br /> | ||
| − | Half a byte is referred to as a | + | Half a byte is referred to as a nibble<ref>http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/2006/04/P15/</ref><br /> |
==References== | ==References== | ||
| − | + | <references/> | |
[[category:science]] | [[category:science]] | ||
[[category:computers]] | [[category:computers]] | ||
Revision as of 00:32, 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]