Wednesday, September 20, 2006

bit VS Byte



Why do i get 32KB/S when they say its 256kbps?

I would be a millionare if I got a dime every time I heard that question.

So to make it clear...... i am going to write a paper on Download speeds(Well...I will call it a paper .....but normal people will call it a guide)

Ok, Lets start.

Every data in the computer world is represented by 1 or 0 (TRUE or FALSE).
Each 1 or 0 is called a bit. So, we can say that a Bit is the smallest amount of data in the digital world.
The way 12 inches make a foot and 100 centimeters make a metre.
Similarly...... 8 bits make 1 byte.
Say it in ur head...

8 bits make 1 byte
8 bits make 1 byte
8 bits make 1 byte
8 bits make 1 byte

Good.

Also .... 1000 bits = 1 kilobit

AND

1024 bytes = 1 kilobyte



All was fine till here..... bit and Byte were happy with their own identity.

Problems arised between them....... when few lazy tech geeks started abbreviating kilobyte and kilobit by KB. Mr. Byte and Miss. Bit were not cool with this new handle. There was an identity crisis. Both didnt want to giv up their names and the only way to solve this problem was to call in more tech geeks.
These geeks again turned out to be lazy. What they did was to assign small "b" to bit and capital "B" to byte (maybe because bit was younger to byte....8 times younger).After this both had their own handles.

Thereafter kilobit was addressed as kb
and kilobyte was called kB.

And also there is a covention adopted for internet speeds (the geeks didnt want any future misunderstandings)
If mentioned in Bytes we use kB/s
and in bits....... its kbps.


Now I can see some of the questions erupting inside your head!!

Q. So what do we hav to do to convert Bytes to bits?
A: Multiply it by 8.
eg. 64kB = 64*8 kbits =512kbits=512kb

Q. How do we convert bits to Bytes?
A: Divide it by 8 (duh!!). No.. example for this.(DIY)

Q. WTF? What abt my internet speeds?
A: What about your internet speeds?

Q. Where the heck is the close button?
A. Right top corner :)

NOTE:

Actually...there one more unit called the kibibyte (KiB) ......I wont be disscussing it here coz.. thats out-of-my-scope.
KiB resulted when few bored geeks(International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC) reopend the Mr. Byte v/s Miss Bit case in 1998.

4 comments:

vib said...

Nice post dude...hope this would help the mortals confused 'bout their download speed...lol

Pankhuri said...

cool mr .........nice ......i njoyed readg it ......Mr byte and Miss bit ......lol .......

Anonymous said...

Best explanation I've seen in ten years!

Anonymous said...

lol. Really good.