Byte

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In computing terms, Byte refers to a unit of data that is eight binary (bits) digits long. It is the unit most computers use to represent a character such as a letter, number, or symbol (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 = 1000 bytes
GB = gigabyte = 1 billion bytes (although this is an approximation) [2]
TB = terabyte = 1000 billion bytes (or 1000GB)
PB = petabyte = 1000TB
EB = exabyte = one billion gigabytes
Half a byte is referred to as a nybble[3]

References