Bits and Bytes:
- The terms bits and bytes in computer terminology refer to standard units of measuring digital data sizes and speeds.
Bit:
- Also known as Binary Digit.
- It is the smallest unit of information that can be stored or manipulated on a computer.
- A bit stores either 0 or 1.
- It is represented as b.
Byte:
- Group of 8 bits is known as a Byte.
- Earlier computers could only send 8 bits at a time, so the code was written in set of 8 bits named as byte.
- A Byte can store one character. Ex 'A', 'k', '$' etc.
- It is represented as B. Also as o (octet).
Difference between bit and byte:
| Bit | Byte |
|---|---|
| Bit is single binary value either 0 or 1. Example: 0 or 1 | A byte is eight bits. Example: 01011010 |
| It is denoted by b | It is denoted by B. |
| It has only two possible values either 0 or 1. | It has 2^8 (256) possible values ranging from 00000000 (0) to 11111111 (255). |
| Network engineers describe network speeds in bits per second abbreviated as bps. Example: 256 Kbps, 20 Mbps, 100 Mbps etc... | Used to measure data storage in Bytes and transmission in Bytes per second abbreviated as Bps Example: CD holds 700 MB, hard drive holds 500 GB etc.. |
| 1024 bits = 1 Kilo bits (Kb) 1024 Kb = 1 Mega bits (Mb) 1024 Mb = 1 Giga bits (Gb) 1024 Gb = 1 Terra bits (Tb) | 1 Byte = 8 bits 1024 Bytes = 1 Kilo Bytes (KB) 1024 KB = 1 Mega Bytes (MB) 1024 MB = 1 Giga Bytes (GB) 1024 GB = 1 Terra Bytes (TB) |
Bytes and Characters - ASCII code:
- ASCII is an encoding representing each typed English character by a number. Ex: A is 65 (01000001 in binary).
- Unicode is an encoding for Greek, Arabic etc languages, typically 2 bytes per character.
- The below table represents ASCII code followed by character.
32 space 33 ! 34 " 35 # 36 $ 37 % 38 & 39 ' 40 ( 41 ) 42 * 43 + 44 , 45 - 46 . 47 / 48 0 49 1 50 2 51 3 52 4 53 5 54 6 55 7 56 8 57 9 58 : 59 ; 60 < 61 = 62 > 63 ? 64 @ |
65 A 66 B 67 C 68 D 69 E 70 F 71 G 72 H 73 I 74 J 75 K 76 L 77 M 78 N 79 O 80 P 81 Q 82 R 83 S 84 T 85 U 86 V 87 W 88 X 89 Y 90 Z 91 [ 92 \ 93 ] 94 ^ 95 _ 96 ` |
97 a
98 b
99 c
100 d
101 e
102 f
103 g
104 h
105 i
106 j
107 k
108 l
109 m
110 n
111 o
112 p
113 q
114 r
115 s
116 t
117 u
118 v
119 w
120 x
121 y
122 z
123 {
124 |
125 }
126 ~
|