The Numbers, Please
A computer memory location can store a byte of information (8 bits), enough for a key board character
A “normal” whole number (integer) uses 4 bytes
Units of memory size are …
- KB, kilobyte, 1024 bytes … just over a thousand bytes, a “K”
- MB, megabyte, 1,048,576 bytes … just over a million bytes, a “meg”
- GB, gigabyte, 1,073,741,824 bytes … just over a billion bytes, a “gig”
- TB, terabyte, 1,099,511,627,776 bytes … just over a trillion bytes
Why do computers use such strange numbers???
- These numbers are powers of 2
- 210 = 1,024 call it a thousand
- 220 = 1,048,576 call it a million
- 230 = 1,073,741,824 call it a billion
- 240 = 1,099,511,627,776 call it a trillion