Units
All data consists of only ones (1s) and zeros (0s), a bit. There are three base
units.
| Unit |
Size |
| Bit |
One (1) or Zero (0) |
| Nibble |
4 Bits |
| Byte |
8 Bits |
There is quite the debate in the industry as to weather kilo, mega, giga, etc should have
a special status to mean 1024 as opposed to the typically 1000 that they mean. The
International System of Units defined these to be 1000, and ever since there has been an
alternate naming scheme for 1024.
In 1998, the International Electrotechnical Commission introduced the kibi, mibi, gibi,
etc naming for the use of 1024, as such there are two naming conventions, however the
previously used kilo, mega, giga, etc naming is often mistaken for kibi, mibi, gibi, etc
naming scheme.
Units for bits (1000)
| Unit |
Size |
| Kilobit (kb) |
1000 Bits |
| Megabit (mb) |
1000 Kilobits |
| Gigabit (gb) |
1000 Megabits |
| Terabit (tb) |
1000 Gigabits |
Units for bits (1024)
| Unit |
Size |
| Kibibit (Kibit) |
1024 Bits |
| Mebibit (Mibit) |
1024 Kibibits |
| Gibibit (Gibit) |
1024 Mebibits |
| Tebibit (Tibit) |
1024 Gibibits |
Units for bytes (1000)
| Unit |
Size |
| Kilobyte (Kb) |
1000 Bytes |
| Megabyte (Mb) |
1000 Kilobytes |
| Gigabyte (Gb) |
1000 Megabytes |
| Terabyte (Tb) |
1000 Gigabytes |
Units for bytes (1024)
| Unit |
Size |
| Kibibyte (KiB) |
1024 Bytes |
| Mebibyte (MiB) |
1024 Kibibytes |
| Gibibyte (GiB) |
1024 Mebibytes |
| Tebibyte (TiB) |
1024 Gibibytes |
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