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Glossary Data & Encoding

Byte

A byte is a unit of digital information made of 8 bits, able to hold 256 different values from 0 to 255.

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In more detail

A byte stores one ASCII character, one colour channel or two Hexadecimal digits. Larger units: 1 kilobyte (KB) is 1,000 bytes in the decimal convention, while 1 kibibyte (KiB) is 1,024. Operating systems and storage makers do not always use the same convention, which is why a "500 GB" drive shows less capacity.

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See also

  • Glossary Binary
    Binary is the base-2 number system, using only the digits 0 and 1, which computers use because electronic circuits are either off or on.
  • Glossary Hexadecimal
    Hexadecimal (hex) is the base-16 number system, using digits 0-9 and letters A-F, widely used as a compact way to write binary data.
  • Glossary ASCII
    ASCII is a 7-bit character encoding that assigns numbers 0 to 127 to English letters, digits, punctuation and control codes.
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