The days of analog media are a thing of the past; now, any information is stored in digital form. Not only personal computers work with digital data, but also practically any other modern technology, for example: mobile phones, MP3 players, digital cameras, camcorders and even television are rapidly switching to a digital signal.
Analog technology is used mainly in narrow circles of lovers of high-quality sound (vinyl records) or film shots, comparable to the quality of shooting with premium SLR cameras. In addition, do not forget that any sound at the output is converted into an analog signal, the quality of which directly depends on the cost of the digital-to-analog converter (DAC). Which, in turn, forces people to either pay a huge sum for a high-quality DAC, or use analog systems. Let's figure out what a kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte are.
What is digital signal
A digital signal is an electrical impulse consisting of two values, one and zero. If there is voltage, one is set, if it is not, zero is set. This method is most convenient for data processing by a processor and other electronics. Thus, the digital stream looks approximately as follows - 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1.
Bit
As mentioned above, a digital signal has only two values, one and zero. So, one such value is called a bit. A bit is the smallest unit of measure for digital data. In everyday life, this value is usually not used, because it is too small. One bit cannot even convey a point in a text document.
The next value by which information is transmitted is a byte. Eight bits are used in one byte. That is, 8 different digits consisting of ones and zeros.
One byte is enough to encode one character in a text document. 256 values can be encoded with a byte. For example, two bits can have four positions - 00, 11, 01 and 10. In three bits, six positions can be transmitted - 111, 000, 100, 110, 010, 001. With the help of eight bits, or one byte, 256 kinds of values can be encoded.
Surely many people remember the game consoles of the 90s, called eight-bit consoles. The fact is that the console data could only transmit an eight-bit image. Images with 256 varieties of color per pixel.
Accordingly, the 16-bit prefixes that appeared a little later could transmit 65535 colors.
Kilobyte
As you might guess, both a byte is made up of bits, and a kilobyte is made up of bytes. One kilobyte uses 1024 bytes. To find out why exactly 1024, and not 1000, it is necessary to plunge into the origins of the creation of computing technology. In short, the extra bytes were used to prevent damage to documents.
A few kilobytes can fit small text in a Word file or text document. One SMS message can take on average 1 - 2 kilobytes.
Megabyte
A more familiar word for modern computer users. One megabyte consists of 1,024 kilobytes or more than a million bytes.
Megabytes are used to measure musical compositions, photographs from digital cameras, short videos, or digitized books.
In those days, when CD players were highly popular, CD discs were produced with a volume of 700 megabytes, on which it was possible to record either 80 minutes of audio recording in wav format, or more than a hundred MP3s.
One gigabyte contains 1024 megabytes. Most often, films are measured in gigabytes in more or less acceptable quality. Not long ago, films of 600 megabytes were the unspoken standard, but now, due to the increase in the diagonal of the monitor, films with a volume of 2 gigabytes or more are needed, and preferably all four. Why exactly 4 gigabytes? Everything is quite simple, the size of 600 megabytes appeared for a reason, it was this size that could fit on CDs, in those days when this medium was most widespread. Over time, a DVD disc with a volume of 4.7 GB has become very popular, hence the file size is 4 gigabytes. Usually this size is sufficient for the video to be 720p.
Also, in gigabytes, the volume is measured, both on computers, and more recently on smartphones. The minimum amount of RAM for a personal computer is 2 gigabytes. With a smaller volume, you will have to use older operating systems, such as Windows XP.
For measuring length, there are units such as millimeter, centimeter, meter, kilometer. It is known that mass is measured in grams, kilograms, centners and tons. The running of time is expressed in seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, centuries. The computer works with information and there are also corresponding units of measurement for measuring its volume.
We already know that the computer perceives all information.
Bit- This is the minimum unit of information measurement corresponding to one binary digit ("0" or "1").
Byte consists of eight bits. Using one byte, you can encode one character out of 256 possible (256 = 2 8). Thus, one byte is equal to one character, that is, 8 bits:
1 character = 8 bits = 1 byte.
A letter, a number, a punctuation mark are symbols. One letter - one character. One digit is also one character. One punctuation mark (either a period, or a comma, or a question mark, etc.) - again one character. One space is also one character.
The study of computer literacy involves the consideration of other, larger units of measurement of information.
Byte table:
1 byte = 8 bits
1 KB (1 Kilobyte) = 2 10 bytes = 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 bytes =
= 1024 bytes (approximately 1 thousand bytes - 10 3 bytes)
1 MB (1 Megabyte) = 2 20 bytes = 1024 kilobytes (approximately 1 million bytes - 10 6 bytes)
1 GB (1 Gigabyte) = 2 30 bytes = 1024 megabytes (approximately 1 billion bytes - 10 9 bytes)
1 TB (1 Terabyte) = 2 40 bytes = 1024 gigabytes (approximately 10 12 bytes). Terabyte is sometimes called ton.
1 PB (1 Petabyte) = 2 50 bytes = 1024 terabytes (approximately 10 15 bytes).
1 Exabyte= 2 60 bytes = 1024 petabytes (approximately 10 18 bytes).
1 Zettabyte= 2 70 bytes = 1024 exabytes (approximately 10 21 bytes).
1 Yottabyte= 2 80 bytes = 1,024 zettabytes (approximately 10 24 bytes).
In the above table, the powers of two (2 10, 2 20, 2 30, etc.) are the exact values for kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes. But the powers of the number 10 (more precisely, 10 3, 10 6, 10 9, etc.) will already be approximate values, rounded down. So 2 10 = 1024 bytes represents the exact value of a kilobyte, and 10 3 = 1000 bytes is an approximate value for a kilobyte.
This approximation (or rounding off) is quite acceptable and generally accepted.
Below is a table of bytes with English abbreviations (in the left column):
1 Kb ~ 10 3 b = 10 * 10 * 10 b = 1000 b - kilobyte
1 Mb ~ 10 6 b = 10 * 10 * 10 * 10 * 10 * 10 b = 1,000,000 b - megabyte
1 Gb ~ 10 9 b - gigabyte
1 Tb ~ 10 12 b - terabyte
1 Pb ~ 10 15 b - petabyte
1 Eb ~ 10 18 b - exabyte
1 Zb ~ 10 21 b - zettabyte
1 Yb ~ 10 24 b - yottabyte
Above in the right column are the so-called "decimal prefixes", which are used not only with bytes, but also in other areas of human activity. For example, the prefix "kilo" in the word "kilobyte" means a thousand bytes, just as in the case of a kilometer it corresponds to a thousand meters, and in the example with a kilogram it is equal to a thousand grams.
To be continued…
The question arises: is there a continuation of the byte table? In mathematics, there is the concept of infinity, which is denoted as an inverted eight: ∞.
It is clear that in the byte table, you can continue to add zeros, or rather, powers to the number 10 in this way: 10 27, 10 30, 10 33 and so on ad infinitum. But why is this necessary? In principle, terabytes and petabytes are enough for now. In the future, a yottabyte may not be enough.
Finally, a couple of examples on devices that can store terabytes and gigabytes of information.
There is a convenient "terabyte" - an external hard drive that is connected via a USB port to a computer. It can store a terabyte of information. It is especially convenient for laptops (where changing the hard drive can be problematic) and for backing up information. It is better to make backup copies of information in advance, and not after everything is gone.
Flash drives come in 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB and even 1 terabyte.
They can hold 650 MB, 700 MB, 800 MB and 900 MB.
In order to thoroughly understand what Bits are, what Bytes are and why all this is needed, let's first dwell a little on the concept of "Information", since it is on it that the work of computers and data transmission networks, including our beloved Internet, is built.
For a person, Information is some kind of knowledge or information that people exchange in the process of communication. At first, knowledge was exchanged orally, passing on to each other, then writing appeared and information began to be transmitted already with the help of manuscripts, and then books. For computing systems Information is data that is collected, processed, stored and transmitted further between the links of the system, or between different computer systems. But if earlier information was placed in books and its volume could be at least somehow visually assessed, for example, in a library, then in digital technologies it has become virtual and cannot be measured using the usual and familiar metric system to which we are accustomed. Therefore, the units of information measurement were introduced - Bits and Bytes.
Bit of information
In a computer, information is stored on special media. Here are the most basic and familiar to most of us:
Hard disk (HDD, SSD) - optical disk (CD, DVD) - removable USB disks (flash drives, USB-HDD) - memory cards (SD, microSD, etc.)
Your personal computer or laptop receives information, mainly in the form of files with various amounts of data. Each of these files, any storage medium at the hardware level, receives, processes, stores and transmits in the form of a sequence of signals. There is a signal - one, no signal - zero. Thus, all information stored on the hard disk - documents, music, films, games - is represented as zeros: 0 and ones: 1. This number system is called binary (only two numbers are used).
Here is one unit of information (it does not matter if it is 0 or 1) and is called bit... The word itself bit came to us as an abbreviation for bi nary digi t Is a binary number. What is remarkable, in the English language there is a word bit - a little, a piece. Thus, a bit is the smallest unit of information.
How many bits are in a Byte
As you already understood above, by itself, a bit is the smallest unit in the information measurement system. That is why it is completely inconvenient to use it. As a result, in 1956, Vladimir Buchgolts introduced another unit of measurement - Byte like a bundle of 8 bits. Here is an illustrative example of a byte in binary:
00000001 10000000 11111111
Thus, these 8 bits are the Byte. It is a combination of 8 digits, each of which can be either one or zero. There are 256 combinations in total. Something like that.
Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte
Over time, the amount of information has grown, and in recent years, exponentially. Therefore, it was decided to use the prefixes of the SI metric system: Kilo, Mega, Giga, Tera, etc.
The prefix "kilo" means 1000, the prefix "mega" means a million, "giga" means a billion, and so on. At the same time, analogies cannot be drawn between a regular kilobyte and a kilobyte. The fact is that a kilobyte is by no means a thousand bytes, but 2 to the 10th power, that is, 1024 bytes.
Accordingly, a megabyte is 1,024 kilobytes or 1,048,576 bytes.
A gigabyte is obtained equal to 1024 megabytes or 1048576 kilobytes or 1073741824 bytes.
For simplicity, you can use a table like this:
For example, I want to give the following figures:
A standard A4 sheet with printed text takes on average about 100 kilobytes
Regular photography on a simple digital camera - 5-8 megabytes
Photos taken with a professional camera - 12-18 megabytes
An average quality mp3 music track for 5 minutes - about 10 megabytes.
Normal movie for 90 minutes, compressed in normal quality - 1.5-2 gigabytes
The same movie in HD quality - from 20 to 40 gigabytes.
P.S .:
Now I will answer the questions most often asked by newbies.
1. How many Kilobits are in Megabits? The answer is 1000 kilobits (SI)
2. How many kilobytes are there in a megabyte? The answer is 1024 Kilobytes
3. How many Kilobits are in a megabyte? The answer is 8192 kilobits
4. How many kilobytes are there in a gigabyte? The answer is 1,048,576 Kilobytes.
I think you already know about bits and bytes, and about kilobytes with megabits too ... but do you know everything about them? Let's check, please answer my question:
How do you think, how many bytes are contained in one kilobyte? Maybe 1024? Or is it 1000?
The correct answer is in this IT tutorial.
Now let's remember (or learn) about the main units of data measurement.
Bit (bit) - basic unit of information measurement, can contain only one binary digit. A bit can only take two values: "0" or "1".
Byte (byte) Is also a unit of information, one byte is equal to eight bits (1 Byte = 8 bits).
These are rather small amounts of data (can be compared to measuring weight in "grams"), so ...
Prefixes K, M, G, T ("kilo-", "kibi", etc.)
... to measure large amounts of data, multiple prefixes are used (it's like “ kilo gram"). The prefix we are used to is “ kilo- "means multiplication by 1000 (10 3), but in the binary system, two to the tenth power (2 10) are used.
Let's take a look at this confusing issue together.
The history of the introduction of binary prefixes
To denote the quantity 2 10 = 1024 bytes, introduced the binary prefix " TO"(Namely the capital letter" K "), but in colloquial speech the unit" K "began to be called" kilo", Which is not quite the same thing. To avoid confusion, we introduced the names of the prefixes:
TO- "kibi",
M- "mebi",
G- "gibi",
T- "you" ...
Those. second syllable changed from the usual to " bi», « bi Narny ".
But the confusion did not disappear, many deciphered "K" and "M" with the usual " kilo" and " mega". Even international standards have interpreted the decoding of binary prefixes in different ways. In addition, manufacturers added fuel to the fire contributed to the confusion of the situation (some considered 2 10, others 10 3).
As a result, in order to finally remove the inconsistency, not only the names were changed, but also the prefixes:
Key- "kibi",
Mi- "mebi",
Guy- "gibi",
Tee- "you" ...
Do you think it helped? Of course not 🙂
In everyday life they say "kilo", in Windows programs they write "K", in Linux they mean "Ki", manufacturers of hard and optical disks write "K", but they mean "Ki", etc.
What should an ordinary user do?
To summarize all that has been said, today there are three options for using binary prefixes, and we will summarize them in three tables.
1. Common use of binary prefixes
In the properties of files, almost all programs, and the Windows operating system itself uses the prefix in the form of an uppercase letter " TO», « M», « G" etc. RAM manufacturers use the same principle. That is, you can use the following table:
This "K" is actually the binary prefix "kibi" (not "kilo" as everyone says).
2. Correct use of binary prefixes
In other operating systems, as well as in professional reviews of serious IT publications, they immediately write “ Kib», « MiB», « GiB”So that there is no doubt about what is at stake.
3. Using decimal prefixes
Manufacturers of storage devices (hard disk drives (HDD), flash memory cards, and DVDs and BDs) use decimal prefixes. The same prefixes are used to designate the data transfer rate (100 Mbit / s = 100,000,000 bit / s, more on that in the next IT lesson).
If the prefix " kilo», « mega», « giga"Etc., then the following ratios are meant:
Where did 70 gigabytes of hard disk space disappear ???
Let's see how Windows sees two 500 GB and 1 TB hard drives:
You probably already guessed why the hard disk volume 1 terabyte in Windows OS is displayed as 931 GB, a not 1000.
Manufacturers believe that 1 000 000 000 kilo byte, and Windows OS divides by 1024 and receives 976,562,500 TO byte (kibi byte) or 931 GB (gibi byte).
So, do not scold the manufacturers and even more so the computer company, everything is measured correctly, but with different roulettes 🙂
With the development of computer technology, more and more new terms appear every year. Many people often use the word "gigabyte", but they do not fully understand the meaning of this concept, which is why they cannot answer the question of how much memory is 1 GB.
What is a gigabyte?
Before you deal with the question "1 GB is a lot or a little", you need to understand the essence of a memory unit. Most electronic devices use electrical current impulse processing. This method allows you to process a large amount of information in a short time and has only two values - "Yes" or "No". This minimum informative unit is called a bit.
With the help of bits, all the necessary data is set in the computer - texts, pictures, sound, and so on. To increase the speed of processing pulses, it was decided to split the entire stream into groups - one set of 8 bits was called a byte. With the development of technology, it was required to work with an increasing amount of data, which is why new divisions into larger groups began to appear.
To simplify the process of understanding the number of bits in a given value, it was decided to use prefixes from the SI system of units. As a result, kilobits, megabytes and other values of the amount of memory appeared. But, according to the unified SI system, the value of each prefix was a multiplier in the form of the number 10 to a certain degree. And computer information, due to its binary nature, is represented in the form of two to some extent. Because of this, when accurately determining the smaller value, they often encounter disagreement. Despite the existing contradictions in the exact definition of the number of bits, the differences in values for prefixes with a small difference are insignificant. So, according to these calculations, 1 kilobyte contains not 1000 bytes, but 2 10 - 1024 bytes.
How many are in one gigabyte?
The prefix "giga" on means 10 9, that is, 1 billion. The closest prefix to "giga" is "mega", which is 10 3 times smaller. But in most countries of the world, including Russia, the exact number of bytes is determined using two to the nth power, so the answer to the question of how many MB is in 1 GB is 1024.
Continuing to consider smaller values, instead of multiplying by 1000, further calculations are performed using 2 to the 10th power. Thus, 1 GB is 1024 * 1024 = 1048576 kilobytes or 1024 3 = 1 073 741 824 bytes. To get the number of bits in 1 GB, you need to multiply the resulting byte value by 8, getting a total of just over a billion.
The largest value for the amount of memory
The range of measurements of memory units has long surpassed the "giga" prefix by several steps. At the moment, the largest value of the amount of information is one yottabyte. In comparison with 1 GB, this is 10 15 times more or, according to the Russian definition, 20 50 times.
Between iottabyte and gigabyte, there are 4 more definitions of volume, each of which reduces the power of 10 by three when using the SI system or, in the binary case, the power of two by 10.
Is a gigabyte a lot or a little?
Every day in the world, various calculations are made, for storing the total volume of which 1 GB is not enough. This value is hardly suitable even for the work of one user - now the amount of RAM, which stores constantly used data, is already several times higher than this value. The size of one movie in average quality, lasting about an hour, takes a little more than a gigabyte, which is why the value of the memory volume itself has become relatively small, despite the great value when considering byte-wise.
1 GB flash drives are also relics of the past that are already difficult to find. Now, to transfer information, they use more voluminous devices, including external hard drives, the volume of which can reach ten terabytes, which is 1000 times more than a gigabyte.
Additionally
