Data… Data.. Data rules the World.
Earlier data was limited to the computer world, but they have dominated in all sectors of the market. Let it be clothing, food anything, companies are desperate for data that can help sell their products. And you must have also heard the terms bits, bytes, gigabyte, terabyte? Wonder what all that is?
Well, here we will see about all there is in bite and byte. Also, we will be seeing how many bits will make a byte.
We will be covering the following
- How many bits are there in a byte?
- What are a bit and byte?
- What is a nipple?
- ASCII
So without many due let us get to the topic:
How Many Bits Are There in a Byte?
Well, 8. A byte consists of 8 bits. It’s more of wordplay on the words Bite and Bit.
What Are Bits and Bytes?
Before discussing bit and byte let’s see how data is stored in a computer. Computers or any electronic devices understand two values that are zeros and ones which constitute the Binary Language (0 and 1).
Fun fact- Earlier data was entered into a computer by entering punched paper. So since the computer follows binary language 0 will be represented by no hole and the hole would represent 1.
A bit is the basic component of data storage, each data is measured in a bit, the bit is the abbreviation of a binary digit.
So when 8 bits are combined, a byte is formed, the byte will be enough to form an ASCII character which can be any letter or a number.
A byte has 256 combinations and it would range from 00000000to 11111111.
Now 1024 bytes will make a kilobyte short formed as KB. 1024 is a standard form of data. Like
• 1024 kilobytes will make a megabyte ( this will be enough to store a book)
• 1024 megabytes will form a gigabyte ( One high-resolution movie will be 1GB)
• 1024 gigabytes will form a terabyte( 1000 movies equivalent)
• 1024 terabyte will form a petabyte
• 1024 petabytes to form an exabyte
• 1024 exabytes to form a zettabyte
• 1024 zettabyte to form a yottabyte
What is a Nibble?
Now we learned about bit and byte. Besides this representation, there is a smaller denomination for byte, which is the nibble. Let’s see something about nibbles.
The four bits are termed as a nibble, in short half, a byte is a nibble otherwise known as quadbits. Nibbles can easily be represented by a hexadecimal digit. It is easier to encode a signal with nibbles than a bit.
How Many Nibbles are There in a Byte?
So the answer to that question is 2 nibbles. It is a bit tricky to understand so let’s see the basics of bits, bytes, and nibbles.
- 1-bit – which is the lowest denomination
- 4 bits is 1 nibble
- 8 bits or 2 nibbles are 1byte
Fun fact- Coding has 700 languages!
Now if you wondering how many nibbles are there in an MB then
1 Byte = 2 nibbles
1024byte = 512 nibbles which are 1MB
Fun fact- learning coding can improve your brain skills
So 1Mb is 8192 bits, 512 nibbles, 1024 bytes
Bits, bytes, MB is also used to represent speed, it is represented to note the speed of data transferring from the computer, receiving data via the net.
Fun fact- you can have 256 combinations with 8 bits
ASCII
In between you must have noticed ASCII, Now you must wonder what ASCII is. ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It is one of the mapping codes, it was developed from the telegraph. It isn’t a language similar to C or C++.
It is a means of coding, It was developed by Bob Bemer to standardize the coding used in computers. The code comprises 128 characters which are used in 7-bit combinations. A few examples of ASCII is:
- To view a capital letter Z then the binary code in ASCII is 90
- 5A which is hexadecimal would be coded in binary as 1010010.
- The word hello can be represented by the series:72,69,76,76,79.
ASCII isn’t used much in modern times as it is a 7-bit code and now more advanced mapping is required.
The other coding used is
- UTF-32 stand for Unicode transformation format 32 bit
- UTF-16
- UTF-8
- ISCII stands for Indian Script code for information interchange
Fun fact- the first virus was a creeper, it didn’t destroy any files, just a warning sign saying “hi my name is a creeper, catch me if you can “.
Did you know?
- A bit is abbreviated as b whereas a byte is abbreviated as B. This is utilised by broadband companies where it will be mentioned as 3Mbps – 3 Megabits per second, customers expecting a high speed will get only low speed, as bit and byte are used to measure the speed of internet connectivity.
- A nibble will have 16 possible combinations.
- A full byte can be represented by Hexadecimal digits from 00 to FF.
- The earlier computer used to have a 4-bit architecture where 4 bits were the fundamental of data processing. And they were called characters.
- Nibbles we’re considered in the early times when data was expensive and everything valued at nibble or kb.
- ASCII was initially used by teleprinters, revisions till 1986 made the code much easier and less complicated than bell code.
- The founder of the ASCII introduces the backslash and escape key into computers, till then these two weren’t there.
- Bemer also warned the world regarding the millennium bug
Fun fact- First coders were women, and they were a group of 6.
Wrapping Up
In short, a bit is the basis of data and 4 bits make up a nibble. 8 bits make up to one 1byte, I hope I was able to cover everything about bit and byte. If you wish to know more about any subject do let us know in the comment session.