Data Representations
Information is handled in the computer by electrical components such as transistors, integrated circuits, semi conductors, and wires, all of which can only indicate two states or conditions. Transistors are either conducting or non-conducting; magnetic materials are either magnetized or no magnetized in one direction or in the opposite direction; a pulse or voltage's present or not present all information is represented within the computer by the presence or absence of these various signals.
The starting point of computer data-the smallest, most fundamental unit is called the 'bit' . The word 'bit' is a charming contraction for a longer and clumsier expression. 'Binary digit'. We're all familiar with the ten decimal digits, 0 through 9 that are used to express the numbers that we work with. Binary digits, in sort bits are similar, but while there are ten distinct decimal digits, there are only two different bit values, 'Zero' and 'One' which are written, naturally enough, as '0' and '1'
The
bits '0' and '1' represent 'off' and 'on'. The bit is the smallest possible
chunk of information in the computer. Bits serve as a building block with which
we can construct and work with large and more meaningful amount of information.
The most important and most interesting collection of bits is the 'Byte'. a
byte is eight bits, taken together as a single unit of computer data. The memory
capacity of a computer or the storage capacity of the disk is measured in bytes.
Bits & Bytes
8
bits=1 Byte=1 Character
1 Byte-00110011=8 Bites
1024 bytes=1 Kilo Byte (KB)
1024 K.B=1 Mega Byte (MB)
1024M.B.=1 Giga Byte (GB)
1024 B.G= 1 Tera Byte (TB)