Computer Knowledge 2

[Nacionalista]

How many bytes are in one megabite? And explain why?

[lorenzo24]

One of the many confusing issues in the computer world is the fact that a megabyte is defined in two different ways.
In the metric system, the prefix mega means 1,000,000. So it would follow that a megabyte is 1,000,000 bytes. This can also be expressed as 10 to the 6th power.

All electronic signals in a computer system are in the form of 1's and 0's normally represented by the presence or absence of +5volts DC. So all programs, all data, and all calculations are in the form of binary numbers. Since computers use the binary number system, they work with bits (binary digits), bytes (8 bits), and powers of 2. This system makes it convenient to refer to 2 to 20th power (1,048,576 bytes) as a megabyte.

So a megabyte can be 1,000,000 bytes or 1,048,576 bytes. Both of these definitions for megabyte are in current use and both are correctly called megabyte. In the computer world, memory is always discussed in terms of binary megabytes. It has become common to measure hard drive capacity in terms of decimal megabytes as well as in binary megabytes. So the definition ultimately depends on whether decimal or binary notation is used.

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[Nacionalista]

Excellent post! Rich in information.

In simplify mode it looks like this:

A byte consist of 8 bits.

8 X 2 = 16
16 X 2 = 32
32 X 2 = 64
64 X 2 = 128
128 X 2 = 256
256 X 2 = 512
512 X 2 = 1024

So one megabyte = 1,024,000

In your hard drive for every 1MB you have 24KB extra.

For example a hard drive with 1.95 GB is actually:

2,097,413,632 bytes