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A Bit of Data Size Terminology

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ninjakannon
Okay, so I'm good with computers and know most of the terminology.

But there are 2 things that have confused me recently. Firstly, 'Mbps' this means Megabits per second; I know what a bit is and all about that. But, how many bits are in a megabit? I'm guessing either 1,000,000 or 1024 x 1024 - however many that is. But I don't know which, if either.

And the other query. When people talk about data size they sometimes say, for example, 16K. Well, what is the K? It's not short for Kb, is it? And how many bytes/bits/whatever it is are in 16K?
Jaan
This is a dumb post, I call it SPAM!

Get lost, and learn to Google. Stop spamming.
Arno v. Lumig
Jaan wrote:
This is a dumb post, I call it SPAM!

Get lost, and learn to Google. Stop spamming.


Chill down a bit, Jaan! He is asking a perfectly normal question, and recently there have been some discussions on whether a kilobyte is actually 1000 bytes or 1024 bytes.

Anyway, according to SI the prefix "kilo" means that it's a thousand (1000), so a kilobyte is 1000 bytes! That also goes for megabytes (mega = 1.000.000). If you are talking about 1024 bytes that is a kibibyte (I know it sounds silly..), and that "bi" stands for "binary". There is also mebibyte (1024*1024 bytes) and gibibyte(1024*1024*1024 bytes).
When people are talking about 16K they are talking about 16.000 of something, so it really depends on the subject. If you are talking about internet speeds then it's probably bit, but when it's about file or memory size it's probably bytes.

I hope this helped you a bit,
Arno v. Lumig
ninjakannon
@Jaan, I have used Google - it didn't give a satisfactory answer for my question about 16K. And when searching for the answer to my former question I was dissatisfied also, so I turned to FriHost. Please look up definitions for dumb and spam, also remember that not everybody is as knowledgeable as you may be. I don't spam here, and take offence at what you said.

Thanks for the help Arno; I checked in a computing book I have and apparently 16K is used when talking about memory addresses. The highest address of a computer with 16K addresses would be 16383 (16 x 1024 - 1).
Yeah, kilo does mean 1000 (hence the kilogram: 1000 grams, for example). I've done a little more after what you said - and Jaan will be pleased to hear - that Google was very helpful this time. You were exactly right!

So thanks a bunch. Very Happy
Sunny
@ Jaan

Only spam I see here is your post, even if you thought its a spam you didn't really had to reply to it and be rude. Respect other members on this forum and let Moderators decide about the spam.


Closing the thread as the issue is resolved.

-close-
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