What IS the difference between bytes and bites?

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andrew xtandrew xt
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
What is the difference between bites and bytes? Also I'm getting a bit confused with the achronyms, what does Mbps actually stand for?



Andrew

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  • Reply 1 of 2
    overhopeoverhope Posts: 1,123member
    Bites is something people do with their teeth.



    Bits, on the other hand, are 1s or 0s representing the state of a switch, in binary form.



    A byte is a binary word, consisting of 8 bits.



    Mbps stands for Megabits per second, ie thousands of bits.
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  • Reply 2 of 2
    pesipesi Posts: 424member
    8 bits equals one Byte.



    1024 bytes equals one KiloByte (KB)



    1024 KiloBytes equals one MegaByte (MB)



    1024 MegaBytes equals one GigaByte (GB)



    sometimes people use 1000 instead of 1024, so numbers sometimes get screwy.



    a bit is always represented by a small "b", a Byte is always represented by a large "B".



    it's become common practice to use bits in reference to interface speeds and bytes in reference to memory and storage capacities.



    this often leads to confusion.



    for example, a 56K modem. the 56K is Kb, not KB.



    i could go on and on, but you should get the idea now.
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