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Bits & Bytes

Bits & Bytes. Binary. All of the information that travels through your computer is based on two commands. The only data that a computer can understand is on and off . But, the millions of combinations of those two commands given in series are what make a computer work. Bits.

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Bits & Bytes

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  1. Bits & Bytes

  2. Binary • All of the information that travels through your computer is based on two commands. • The only data that a computer can understand is on and off. • But, the millions of combinations of those two commands given in series are what make a computer work.

  3. Bits • Remember the power supply that is inside your computer and how it sends electricity to all of the components? • That electricity is what creates an on signal. The memory chips inside your computer are divided into thousands of tiny compartments called bits.

  4. Gates: Opened and Closed • Each bit has an electronic switch or gate. • On means the gate is open and letting electricity go through. • The computer reads on or open switches as a number 1. • Closed gates are off because the electricity is blocked and cannot get through. • The computer reads off bits as 0.

  5. Gates: Opened and Closed

  6. Bits and Bytes • It is by grouping these bits together to form a series of 1/0 commands, that data is formed. Eight bits are grouped together to form a byte. In this group of eight, there are 256 possible combinations of 1/0.

  7. KB, MB, and GB • You may have seen these abbreviations many times before. Do you know what they mean? • KB = kilobyte = about 1,000 bytes, • MB = megabyte = about 1,000,000 bytes, • GB= gigabyte = about 1,000,000,000 bytes • As you can see, these abbreviations stand for a specific number of bytes. And each byte holds 8 bits capable of forming 256 combinations of 1/0.

  8. A Different Perspective • There is another way to look at these three amounts • KB = kilobyte = about 1,000 bytes, • MB = megabyte = about 1,000 kilobytes, • GB= gigabyte = about 1,000 megabytes • This concept is important to understand because it can help us convert from one size to the other when we want to compare different sizes.

  9. A Conversion Example • Let’s say we can purchase one of two hard drives, one drive is 1,746 MB and the other is 1.5 GB. Which drive should we choose? • KB = kilobyte = about 1,000 bytes, • MB = megabyte = about 1,000 kilobytes, • GB= gigabyte = about 1,000 megabytes • Since the first drive is in MB (1,746 MB), we can convert the second drive from GB to MB by multiplying 1.5 GB x 1000 MB/GB = 1,500 MB or taking GB -> MB move the decimal point 3 places to the right 1.5 becomes 1500. MB

  10. A Conversion Example (continued) • Now we can compare the two drives. One drive is 1,746 MB and the other is 1,500 MB. Clearly the first drive (1,746 MB) is larger. • Could we compare the two drives in GB? • Absolutely! • To convert the first drive, 1,746 MB to GB we take 1,746 MB/1000 MB/GB=1.746 GB or taking MB -> GB move the decimal 3 places to the left from 1746 to 1.746 GB • NOTE: Notice the pattern of moving 3 decimal places each level we move up MB->GB or down GB->MB

  11. Check for Understanding • Convert the following: • 856 MB to GB • 7.84 GB to MB • 1,546,000 KB to GB (hint: move 3 decimal places to take KB -> MB & move 3 decimal places to take MB -> GB) • 1,746 MB to KB • 1.5 GB to KB .865 GB 7,840 MB 1.546 GB (Remember our PATTERN of moving 3 decimal places at each level) 1,746,000 KB 1,500,000 KB

  12. What Exactly is a Gig? • To get an idea of how much on/off data a computer can store, just imagine pressing one key one billion times. How long would it take? • If you pressed the key 5 times per second, it would take you over 6 years of continuously typing to reach 1 billion keystrokes equal to 1GB of memory…

  13. RAM Memory • The number that comes before one of these abbreviations represents the computer's memory capacity. • For example, if a computer has 64MB of RAM that means that the computer can handle 64,000,000 (64 million) bytes of random access memory (that's 64,000,000 microscopic 8-bit panels).

  14. Hard Drive Size • Hard disk space is also measured in bytes. So, a 15 GB hard drive has 15,000,000,000 (15 billion) bytes for storage or 15,000 MB. • How many kilobytes would that be? 15,000,000 KB

  15. Binary Coding • Representing text characters, such as letters, as binary numbers is called Binary Coding.

  16. How it All Works! • The numerical value of the uppercase letter A is 65. That number 65 is represented in one byte - a combination of 1 and 0 or on and off switches. • The computer cannot understand letters, so it translates them into binary numbers that are represented by patterns of on and off.

  17. How it All Works! • Look at your keyboard. Each character key is represented by a number that is held in a single byte. • Remember how the letter A is sent to the CPU to be translated into binary code?

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