A digital device is any equipment containing a computer or microcontroller; included in these devices are smartphones, watches, and tablets. A digital device processes electronic signals that represent either a one (“on”) or a zero (“off”). The presence of an electronic signal represents the “ on ” state; the absence of an electronic signal represents the “ off ” state. Each one or zero is referred to as a bit (a contraction of binary digit); a group of eight bits is a byte. The first personal computers could process 8 bits of data at once; modern PCs can now process 128 bits of data at a time. The larger the bit, the faster information can be processed simultaneously.
As you know, the system of numbering we are most familiar with is base-ten numbering. In base-ten numbering, each column in the number represents a power of ten, with the far-right column representing 10^0 (ones), the next column from the right representing 10^1 (tens), then 10^2 (hundreds), then 10^3 (thousands), etc. For example, the number 1010 in decimal represents: (1 x 1000) + (0 x 100) + (1 x 10) + (0 x 1).
Computers use the base-two numbering system, also known as binary. In this system, each column in the number represents a power of two, with the far-right column representing 2^0 (ones), the next column from the right representing 2^1 (tens), then 2^2 (fours), then 2^3 (eights), etc. For example, the number 1010 in binary represents (1 x 8 ) + (0 x 4) + (1 x 2) + (0 x 1). In base ten, this evaluates to 10.
As digital devices' capacities grew, new terms were developed to identify the capacities of processors, memory, and disk storage space. Prefixes were applied to the word byte to represent different orders of magnitude. Since these are digital specifications, the prefixes were originally meant to represent multiples of 1024 (which is 210) but have more recently been rounded to mean multiples of 1000.
The following table contains a listing of Binary prefixes:
Binary Prefixes and Examples
Prefix
|
Represents
|
Example
|
kilo
|
one thousand
|
kilobyte=one thousand bytes
|
mega
|
one million
|
megabyte=one million bytes
|
Giga
|
one billion
|
gigabyte=one billion bytes
|
tera
|
one trillion
|
terabyte=one trillion bytes
|
Peta
|
one quadrillion
|
petabyte=one quadrillion bytes
|
exa
|
one quintillion
|
exabyte=one quintillion bytes
|
Zetta
|
one sextillion
|
zettabytes=one sextillion bytes
|
yotta
|
one septillion
|
yottabytes=one septillion bytes
|