Nowadays, high technology is increasingly leaking into everyday life. But a few decades ago, computers were considered expensive goods that could belong only to wealthy people.
People who use a phone, tablet or computer are sure to come across terms such as "byte", "megabyte" or "gigabyte". And of course, they begin to ask questions about what exactly they mean and in relation to what they are applied. This will be the focus of our article.
What is information and where is it on the device?
Information is one of the most expensive and valuable goods, and in some cases it can also act as the main weapon against another person. It is especially appreciated among international companies and corporations.
This term directly affected the field of high technology, where information is measured in a special way. Everyone who uses a device must know and understand the units used in this case.
Mb, GB or Kb is the amount of information used by a computer and stored on its hard drive. It records both new and delete old data.
Where is the data stored on the computer?
Any personal computer or laptop has a hard drive in which all its existing information is stored. Before designating such concepts as “kilobytes” or “megabytes”, it is necessary to analyze the structure of the place where the data is stored.
A hard disk consists of an electric motor, disks, heads and a set of circuits.
Previously, there were at least 2 disks (pancakes) in this device, and their total number could reach 4 or more. Now hard drives have 2 or even 1 such a "pancake". This was due to the development of computer technology, which allows to increase the density of recording information on the medium.
The number of discs has decreased several times, and the amount of information that they can record on themselves has increased many times over. The newest versions of hard drives have only one pancake and can contain up to 3 terabytes of information.
Basic units of information
The smallest unit of information is called "bit." It can take only 2 values - 0 or 1.
The next term is byte. A byte forms an entire block (octet) of information, which consists of 8 bits.
What does the concept of “kilobytes (Kb)” mean? The amount of information stored by the device is always different, and every year it becomes more. As an example, you can take RAM. Previously, its volume did not exceed 2 gigabytes, but in our time it will not be enough and 4. It is precisely because of this that the derivatives of the byte value appeared. That is, KB is a derivative of "bytes." Various consoles are used, including “kilo”, “mega”, “giga” and so on. The size of the KB is 1021 bytes, which is equal to 2 10 bytes.
Derivative Units
Derived units of information have been added to reduce the notation. Such derivative words are used not only in high technology, but also, for example, in physics, where a meter is used to measure length, and its derivatives are kilometer, nanometer and others. Tb, GB, Mb and Kb are derivatives formed by adding various prefixes:
These consoles were widely used as far back as 1789, when they were used in such sciences as physics. The very first of them were “kilo” and “mega”. They are necessary so that the record of the amount of information is not so voluminous, that is, to facilitate its reading. For example, transferring 819,200 Kb to Mb, we get only 100 Mb, which is extremely convenient for visual perception.
Translation of derivatives
GB, MB or KB is the same information that surrounds us everywhere. All the time, the amount of information in devices increases, and sometimes you have to deal with the need to transfer it to another level. For greater convenience, you need to familiarize yourself with the first three positions from the table below:
It was said above that 1 byte contains 8 bits, and you need to translate the bits into kilobytes in a slightly different way. For example, there are 128 bits that need to be converted to bytes. Since 1 B = 8 bits, the number 128 is divided by 8. As a result, the number 16 is obtained.
A computer, laptop or any other device perceives information only in its own language. In computer science, there is such a field as programming, and programmers write all their works in the language of the source device, to a greater extent - this is a binary system, although another sphere is also used in this area - a hexadecimal calculus system.
The conversion from bits to kilobytes is not so complicated, but there are other nuances. Some computer users may be confused how many KB in MB or how many GB in 1 TB. The latter term has appeared recently due to a hefty increase in the volume of hard drives. In order not to get confused in them, you need to consider the table that has already been mentioned above. Especially it should be shown to beginners in using a computer, which will help clarify for them some difficult points.