Units of Storage

Bit

The smallest unit of data in a computer is called Bit (Binary Digit).

A bit has a single binary value, either 0 or 1.

1 bit = 0 or 1

Nibble

Half a byte (four bits) is called a nibble.

1 nibble = 4 bits

Byte

A byte is a unit of data that is eight binary digits long.

1 byte = 8 bits

One byte is used to represent a character such as a letter, number or special symbol (!, @, #, $, %, ^,…).

A byte is abbreviated with a “B”. (A bit is abbreviated with a small “b”).

Kilobyte

A Kilobyte (KB) is approximately a thousand bytes (actually, 2 to the 10th power, or decimal 1,024
bytes).

1 KB = 210 B

1 KB = 1024 B

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Megabyte (MB)

1 MB = 1024 KB

= 1024 x 1024 B

= 210 x 210 B = 220 B

Gigabyte (GB)

1 GB = 1024 MB

= 1024 x 1024 KB

= 1024 x 1024 x 1024 B

= 210 x 210 x 210 B = 230 B

Terabyte (TB)

1 TB = 1024 GB

= 1024 x 1024 MB

= 1024 x 1024 x 1024 KB

= 1024 x 1024 x 1024 x 1024 B

= 210 x 210 x 210 x 1024 B = 240 B

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