Bits and Bytes

Binary Code Computers use a special code of their own to express the digital information they process. It's called the binary code because it consists of only two symbols—0s and 1s. (The "bi" in "binary" means two.) Why 0s and 1s? the only two numbers you need to express the flow of electricity through a transistor. It's either on or it's off. On is 1, off is 0. Everything you say to a computer has to be put in terms of these two numbers.

1s and 0s For a computer to execute or respond to a command, it has to be translated into the only language a computer knows: the 0s and 1s of the binary number system. What do you call one of these 0s or 1s? Bits. (they really are just a "bit" of something bigger) A Byte is equal to 8 Bits. A Byte can represent 256 states of information, for example, numbers or a combination of numbers and letters. 1 Byte could be equal to one character. 10 Bytes could be equal to a word. 100 Bytes would equal an average sentence.

ASCII ASCII—An Alphabet For Computers (American Standard Code for Information Interchange). Bits, the 0s and 1s of binary code, can be used in many different ways to represent information. To make it easier for computers to communicate with each other, a standard language has been created: ASCII ASCII is an 8-bit code. It uses eight bits to represent a letter, number, or punctuation mark. For instance, a lower case "a" is represented by 0110 00012.

Types of Bytes! Kilobyte: A Kilobyte is approximately 1,000 Bytes, actually 1,024 Bytes depending on which definition is used. 1 Kilobyte would be equal to this paragraph you are reading, whereas 100 Kilobytes would equal an entire page. Megabyte: A Megabyte is approximately 1,000 Kilobytes. In the early days of computing, a Megabyte was considered to be a large amount of data. These days with a 500 Gigabyte hard drive on a computer being common, a Megabyte doesn't seem like much anymore. One of those old 3-1/2 inch floppy disks can hold 1.44 Megabytes or the equivalent of a small book. 100 Megabytes might hold a couple volumes of Encyclopedias. 600 Megabytes is about the amount of data that will fit on a CD-ROM disk. Gigabyte: A Gigabyte is approximately 1,000 Megabytes. A Gigabyte is still a very common term used these days when referring to disk space or drive storage. 1 Gigabyte of data is almost twice the amount of data that a CD-ROM can hold. But it's about one thousand times the capacity of a 3-1/2 floppy disk. 1 Gigabyte could hold the contents of about 10 yards of books on a shelf. 100 Gigabytes could hold the entire library floor of academic journals.

The code 1 bit = a binary digit 8 bits = 1 byte 1024 bytes = 1 kilobyte 1024 kilobytes = 1 Megabyte 1024 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte 1024 Gigabytes = 1 Terabyte