Units of information in computer science. Minimum Unit of Information

Our high-tech age is distinguished by its wide capabilities. With the development of electronic computers, amazing horizons have opened up before people. Any interesting news can now be found on the global network for free, without leaving home. This is a breakthrough in technology. But how so much data can be stored in computer memory, processed and transmitted over long distances? What units of information in computer science exist? And how to work with them? Now, not only people directly involved in writing computer programs, but ordinary schoolchildren should know the answers to these questions. After all, this is the basis of everything.

Definition of information in computer science

We are used to thinking that information is all the knowledge that is conveyed to us. But in computer science and computer science this word has a slightly different definition. This is the basic component of the entire science of electronic computers. Why basic or fundamental? Because computer technology processes data, saves and informs people. The smallest unit of information is measured in bits. Information is stored in the computer until the user wants to view it.

We are used to thinking that information is a unit of language. Yes, it is, but in computer science a different definition is used. This is information about the state, properties and parameters of objects in our environment. It is perfectly clear that the more we learn about an object or phenomenon, the more we realize that our idea of ​​them is scanty. But now, thanks to such a huge amount of completely free and accessible materials from all over the world, it has become much easier to learn, make new friends, work, relax and just relax reading books or watching movies.

Alphabetic aspect of measuring the amount of information

By printing documents for work, articles on websites and maintaining our personal blog on the Internet, we do not think about how the data is exchanged between the user and the computer itself. How is a machine capable of understanding commands, in what form does it store all files? In computer science, a bit is accepted as a unit of information, which can store a binary code of zeros and ones. The essence of the alphabetical approach in the measurement of text characters is a sequence of characters. But do not bind the alphabetical approach with the content of the text. These are completely different things. The amount of such data is proportional to the number of characters entered. Thanks to this, it turns out that the information weight of a character from the binary alphabet is equal to one bit. The units of information in computer science are different, like any other measures. Bit is the minimum measurement value.

The content aspect of calculating the amount of information

Information measurement is based on probability theory. In this case, the question of how much data is contained in a message received by a person is considered. Here the discrete mathematics theorems are used. To calculate the measure of the volume of materials, two different formulas are taken depending on the probability of the event. At the same time, the units of information in computer science remain the same. The tasks of calculating the number of characters, graphics for the content approach is much more complicated than for the alphabetical.

Types of Information Processes

There are three main types of processes carried out in an electronic computer:

1. Data processing. How is this process going? Through data entry tools, whether it be a keyboard, an optical mouse, a printer or other devices, the computer receives information. Then it converts them into binary code and writes to the hard drive in bits, bytes, megabytes. To translate any unit of information in computer science, there is a table by which you can calculate how many bits are in one megabyte, and perform other translations. The computer does everything automatically.
2. Storage of files and data in the device’s memory. A computer is capable of storing everything in binary form. The binary code consists of zeros and ones.
3. Another of the main processes taking place in an electronic computer is data transfer. It is also implemented in binary form. But information is already displayed on the monitor screen in a symbolic or other form familiar to our perception.

Information coding and measure

A bit is taken as a unit of information, which is easy enough to work with, because it can hold a value of 0 or 1. How does a computer encode ordinary decimal numbers into binary code? Consider a small example that will explain the principle of coding information by computer technology.

Suppose we have a number in the usual system of calculation - 233 . To translate it into binary form, it is necessary to divide by 2 until it becomes smaller than the divisor itself (in our case, 2).

1. We start the division: 233/2 = 116. The remainder is written separately, these will be the components of the response binary code. In our case, this is 1.
2. The second action will be: 116/2 = 58. The remainder of the division - 0 - is again written separately.
3. 58/2 = 29 without a remainder. Do not forget to write down the remaining 0, because, having lost only one element, you will get a completely different value. This code will then be stored on the computer's hard drive and be bits - the minimum units of information in computer science. 8th graders are already able to cope with the conversion of numbers from the decimal type to the binary, and vice versa.
4. 29/2 = 14 with the remainder 1. We write it separately to the binary digits already received.
5. 14/2 = 7. The remainder of the division is 0.
6. A little more and the binary will be ready. 7/2 = 3 with the remainder 1, which is written in the future response of the binary code.
7. 3/2 = 1 with the remainder 1. From here we write down two units in response. One as the remainder, the other as the last remaining number, which is no longer divisible by 2.

It must be remembered that the answer is written in the reverse order. The first resulting binary number from the first action will be the last digit, from the second - the penultimate, and so on. Our final answer is 11101001 .

Such a binary number is recorded in the computer's memory and stored in this form until the user wants to look at it from the monitor screen. Bit, byte, megabyte, gigabyte - units of information in computer science. It is in these quantities that binary data is stored in the computer.

Reverse number conversion from binary to decimal system

In order to carry out the reverse translation from a binary value to a decimal system of calculation, you must use the formula. We count the number of characters in a binary value, starting from 0. In our case, there are 8, but if you start counting from zero, then they end with serial number 7. Now you need to multiply each digit from the code by 2 to the power of 7, 6, 5, ..., 0.

1 * 2 ⁷ + 1 * 2 ⁶ + 1 * 2 ⁵ + 0 * 2 ⁴ + 1 * 2 ³ + 0 * 2 ² + 0 * 2 ¹ + 1 * 2 ⁰ = 233. Here is our initial number, which was taken before the conversion to binary code.

Now you know the essence of coding information by a computer device and the minimum measure of information storage.

Minimum Information Unit : Description

As mentioned above, the smallest measure of information is considered a bit. This word is of English origin, in translation it means "binary digit". If you look at this value on the other hand, then we can say that this is a memory cell in electronic computers, which is stored in the form 0 or 1. Bits can be converted into bytes, megabytes and even larger amounts of information. The electronic computer itself is engaged in such a procedure when it stores the binary code in the memory cells of the hard drive.

Some computer users may want to manually and quickly transfer measures of the amount of digital information from one to another. For such purposes, online calculators have been developed, they will immediately carry out an operation, which could be spent a lot of time manually.

Informatics Information Units: Value Chart

Computers, flash drives and other devices for storing and processing information differ among themselves by the amount of memory, which is usually calculated in gigabytes. You need to look at the main table of quantities to see the comparability of one unit of information in computer science in ascending order from the second.

Using the maximum unit of information

Nowadays, they plan to use the maximum measure of the amount of information called yottabyte at the National Security Agency in order to store all audio and video materials received from public places where video cameras and microphones are installed. At the moment, yottabytes are the largest units of information in computer science. Is that the limit? It is unlikely that anyone will be able to give an exact answer now.