UNITS OF STORAGE

UNITS OF STORAGE

Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, refers to computer components, device and recording media that retain digital data used for computing for some interval of time. Computer data storage provides one of the core function of the modern computer, that of information retention. It is one of the fundamental components of all modern computers. Computer understands “0”s and “1” which are referred to as binary. The “0” stands for “off” meaning an electrically discharge state while “1” stands for “on” meaning an electrically charged state. We have various units of storage, they are as follows:

BITS

NIBBLE

BYTE

 KILOBYTE {KB}

MEGABYTE {MB}

GIGABYTE {GB}

TERABYTE{TB}
    

1. BIT: The bit or binary digits as it is called, is the basic unit of information in the computer. It is expressed as 0 and 1 in binary notation e.g. 11011.

2. NIBBLE: This is a storage unit that is made up of 4 bits. It is equal to 4 bits or half of an octet. An octet is equal to eight bits.

3. BYTE: the byte is a unit of digital information in computing. It is a combination of bits used in representing a particular letter or character. It is equivalent to 2 nibbles or 8 bits. {11001101}. The size of computer memory is determined by bytes. That means 8 bits equals 1 byte.

4. KILOBYTE {KB}: The kilobyte is used to measure memory space. It is used to measure units. The hard disks of computer, the memory space, flash drives and other storage media are measured in kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes respectively.

                  8 bits= 1 byte

                  1024 bytes= 1 kilobyte

                                        

5. MEGABYTE {MB}: A Megabyte is equal to 1024x1024 bytes. It is commonly abbreviated as Mbyte or MB {1,048, 576 bytes}.

  1024 kilobytes= 1 megabyte or 1024² bytes= 1 megabyte

GIGABYTE {GB}: A gigabyte is equal to 1024 megabyte. The unit symbol for the gigabyte is GB or Gbyte.

        1024 megabytes = 1 Gigabyte

        1024³ bytes =1Gigabyte

      {1,073, 741, 824 bytes}

1.     TERABYTE: A terabyte is equivalent to 1024 Gigabytes.

This implies that 1024⁴ bytes =1 Terabyte

(1,099,511,627,776 bytes)