Computer 101: Binary and Measurement

Introduction

Computers have become one of the important gadgets of our life, most of our daily task heavily rely in this amazing machine. But have you ever wondered how it run and how they measure it? If you are curious on how computer works (even if your profession is not related to IT) then you came to the right blog! In this small article I will explain how computer works in simple but understandable words and explain how they measure it too that even most IT guys don't know yet.




Binary

To begin with this article let's talk about binary first, I'm sure most of you have heard about this but do you really know what it is? Well first of all binary is composed of two (2) characters only, 0 and 1 which represents on and off or open and close.

Everything you see or do in the computer is made up of millions to billions of 0's and 1's even images that you'll surely won't believe are also made up of 0's and 1's. Each pixel is represented by 8 or more 0's and 1's that's why a single image can reach up to several megabytes of memory because they are literally made up of millions of binary digit. To further picture how vast and great is this Binary System I will explain how conversion and measurement work in the binary system.

Measurement

Most of you are familiar with the basic Kilobyte, Megabyte or other types but do you really understand what is a byte? Byte is not really the smallest unit in computing, a byte is composed of 8 bits. A bit can be either 0 or 1. Example: 0110 1100, 0011 1110, 0101 1010, 0000 1100

Quick Fact: You might be wondering why they are divided by four, a byte can be divided into two equal parts (4 bits each) and they are called a "nibble".

Now by definition we can understand that 1 Kilobyte is 1,000 Byte or 8,000 bits or 2,000 nibbles right? So what do we call them? 1 Kilobyte is the standard unit, but sometimes we unknowingly use Kilobits for that one. So how do we differentiate them?

Byte vs Bits

Most of us don't care about this actually, especially if you're not in the field of IT. But somehow this will be helpful to you. A byte and bit are written in the same way Byte is B and Bit is b, Kilobyte is KB and Kilobit is Kb.

That's it? Just a small letter? Well actually yes, but it may somehow affect you, specially on promos. I can offer you a very cheap 8Gb USB flashdrive that you'll surely think is a big bargain, but wait a minute, "8Gb"? Whoa man! that's ridiculous because 8Gb is actually 8 Gigabits or 1Gigabyte (1GB). It is one of the biggest lies in our download speed actually, most programs show our download speed in BITS not in BYTES, so that you'll think you are downloading really fast, imagine the ability to fool you 8X just by changing "B" to "b"? I'm sure you'll be amazed to see 800Kbps than 100KBps thinking they are just the same with a little difference in the capitalized "B", but in the world of computing, that capitalization really matters.

Whoa man I think it's 1,024 not 1,000!

Oh yeah! Most IT guys will argue with this post because most of what we use is not exactly 1,000 well some of them at least, for example 1 Gigabyte of Random Access Memory (RAM) is actually 1,073,741,824 Bytes not 1,000,000,000 Bytes.

Hey! Are you trying to confuse me? Maybe that's what you are thinking right now, well, actually that is something wrong. What's wrong with it is the unit that we used, 1 Gigabyte is really 1 Billion Bytes and 1,073,741,824 Bytes is 1 GibiByte (GiB). Yes you read it right! Something new aye?

SI Unit of Digital Information Storage

You might be thinking that Kilo, Mega and Giga are already the SI (International System) Unit of Digital Information Storage, well you are wrong. Kibi (Ki), Mebi(Mi), Gibi(Gi), Tebi(Ti), Pebi(Pi), Exbi(Ei), Zebi(Zi) and Yobi(Yi) are the real SI unit for Digital Information Storage. They are defined as 1024(Ki), 10242(Mi), 10243(Gi), 10244 (Ti) and so on.

In Summary....

To summarize all of this I'll create a little chart for you.

B = Byte
b = bit

1 Byte = 8 Bits
1 Byte = 2 Nibble
1 Nibble = 4 Bits

1KB = Kilobyte [1,000 Bytes/8,000 Bits/2,000 Nibbles]
1Kb = Kilobit [125 Bytes/1,000 Bits/250 Nibbles]
1MB = Megabyte [1 Million Bytes/8 Million Bits/2 Million Nibbles]
1Mb = Megabit [125,000 Bytes/1 Million Bits/250,000 Nibbles]
1GB = Gigabyte [1 Billion Bytes/8 Billion Bits/ 2 Billion Nibbles]
1Gb = Gigabit [125 Million Bytes, 1 Billion Bits/ 250 Million Bits]

1KiB = 1024 Bytes
1MiB = 1,048,576 Bytes
1GiB = 1,073,741,824 Bytes
1Kib = 1024 Bits / 128 Bytes
1Mib = 1,048,576 Bits / 131,072 Bytes
1Gib = 1,073,741,824 Bits / 134,217,728 Bytes

That's all....

I guess this ends my little article about binary, I hope you enjoyed reading those numbers, if you want to request any future topics you can comment below and I'll try to research it.

And always remember that your 8Gigabyte game is made up of 64 Billion combinations of 0's and 1's.

Written By: SalbagSanting

Source: His memory, this article is a self-written article from his own memory, if you spot any mistake please indicate it in the comment section below.

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