1. Bits, Bytes, and Storage

2. How can we relate to the terms Bits and Bytes?
What do I mean when I say: “This computer has a 64-bit processor with 4 Gigabytes of RAM and 200 Gigabytes of hard disk space.”

3. The Bit
We all ready know that a computer reads information in bits; a whole slew of 1’s and 0’s.
1 = on and = off

4. Bit bit = From a shortening of the words “binary digit”
the basic unit of information for computers
1 or 0 are the only values (1 = on and 0 = off)

5. Key Terms Bits = 1 or 0 Bytes = 8 bits = 1 byte
All of the prefixes related to storage KB MB GB TB

6. Byte
1 Byte = 8 bits
Each keyboard character is stored as a Byte (8 bits)
Example  A =

7. Diagram of Bits and Bytes

8. Text to binary conversion
The Montreal Canadians are the best hockey team in the NHL.
This sentence contains 56 characters.
That is 56 bytes of information or, 448 bites (1’s and 0’s) of information

9. How does a computer processor understand bytes?
The processor is made of zillions of Transistors.
Transistor on = 1
Transistor off = 0

10. A transistor is a switch
Switch on = 1
Switch off = 0
The ”A” exists as a pattern in eight transistors, where some are “turned on” (charged - an electron hit the transitor) and others are not.
Together these 8 transistors make up one byte.

11. Give this a shot…..
The Binary Math Game

12. UNITS  Big & Way Big Bytes
Byte a grouping of eight bits for instance -->
Kb (kilobyte) about 1000 bytes
Mb (megabyte) about one thousand KB or one million bytes
Gb (gigabyte) about one thousand MB or one billion bytes
Tb (terabyte) is about one thousand GB or one trillion bytes

13. Terms for Storage Capacities
These are the numeric values that represent the previous slide: 1 bit = 0 or 1 (b) 8 bits = 1 byte (B) 1,000 bytes = kilobyte (KB) 1,000,000 bytes = megabyte (MB) 1,000,000,000 bytes = gigabyte (GB) 1,000,000,000,000 = terabyte (TB)

14. A file with size = 201 Bytes

15. This hard drive has used up 16,384 bytes or 16 KB
The total amount of GB this computer can hold is 32,254,246,912 bytes or 30 GB of free space.

16. MB of data 16 GB of data can be stored on memory card
128 MB of Data can be stored on this memory card
16 GB of data can be stored on memory card

17. Terabytes = a trillion bytes

18. Assignment
Use the following website: binary-conversion.html and create a message. Once you have completed the message do the following:
1) identify how many bytes your message is and;
2) Get a friend in the classroom to decode your binary message, and see if they can figure out how many bytes your message is.