| santa_sh0t_tupac |
May 11th, 2007 10:32 PM |
Speaking of bytes/bits...
Got me wondering if bit conversion was different for data transmission. I always kind of assumed it was the standard 8 bits = 1 byte per computer architecture. So, I went and looked. This is what I came up with.
Quote:
The metric system
In some cases when used to describe data transfer rates bits/bytes are calculated as in the metric system as follows:
1 MB = 1,000,000 bits/bytes
1 kb = 1,000 bits/bytes
1 bit/byte
The period (.) is used as decimal separator.
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The calculations is based on:
In the cases when used to describe data storage bits/bytes are calculated as follows:
1 byte = 8 bits
1 kilobyte (K / Kb) = 2^10 bytes = 1,024 bytes
1 megabyte (M / MB) = 2^20 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes
1 gigabyte (G / GB) = 2^30 bytes = 1,073,741,824 bytes
1 terabyte (T / TB) = 2^40 bytes = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes
1 petabyte (P / PB) = 2^50 bytes = 1,125,899,906,842,624 bytes
1 exabyte (E / EB) = 2^60 bytes = 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 bytes
The period (.) is used as decimal separator.
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Data Transmission conversion (kilobit):
In data communications, a kilobit is a thousand bits, or 1,000 (103) bits. It's commonly used for measuring the amount of data that is transferred in a second between two telecommunication points. Kilobits per second is usually shortened to Kbps.
Some sources define a kilobit to mean 1,024 (that is, 210) bits. Although the bit is a unit of the binary number system, bits in data communications are discrete signal pulses and have historically been counted using the decimal number system. For example, 28.8 kilobits per second (Kbps) is 28,800 bits per second. Because of computer architecture and memory address boundaries, bytes are always some multiple or exponent of two.
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