Digital Information

Question 1

Bit

Answer 1

The smallest unit of digital information. Each individual one and zero in a binary sequence is a bit.

Question 2

Byte

Answer 2

Eight bits together form a byte. The value of a single byte can range from 0 (eight 0s) to 255 (eight 1s).

Question 3

Kilobyte (KB)

Answer 3

One kilobyte is equal to 1,000 bytes.

Question 4

Megabyte (MB)

Answer 4

One megabyte is one million bytes of information. Therefore, 1 megabyte equals 1,000 kilobytes.

Question 5

Gigabyte (GB)

Answer 5

One gigabyte is one billion bytes. Therefore, 1 gigabyte equals 1,000 megabytes.

Question 6

Terabyte (TB)

Answer 6

One terabyte is equal to 1,000 gigabytes.

Question 7

Digital data

Answer 7

A physical signal, such as text, numbers, graphics, or sound, interpreted by converting it into binary numbers.

Question 8

Encoding integers

Answer 8

Integers can have a positive or negative value. Computers encode 32 bit by using the first bit for the sign, one for negative and zero for positive. Then, the remaining 31 bits are used to encode the number itself, giving a range from about negative 2 billion to positive 2 billion.

Question 9

Encoding text

Answer 9

Computers represent text by using 1s and 0s as stand-ins for physical signals, such as magnetic or electrical charge. The computer can encode text by assigning a unique binary code to each character.

Question 10

Processing speed

Answer 10

In 64-bit processors, computers can receive or send eight bytes of data at once. Each time the processor writes data to memory or reads data from memory is called a cycle. The base unit of measure is hertz (Hz). One hertz means one cycle per second.

Question 11

Storage space

Answer 11

Data storage usually refers to the number of bytes. Since bits and bytes are so small and can’t store much information, we use the metric system to describe them in groups.

Question 12

Throughput

Answer 12

Throughput, or data transmission from one computer to another, usually refers to the number of individual bits that can be transmitted in one second. For example, a gigabit internet connection can send a billion ones and zeroes every second.

Question 13

System memory

Answer 13

A computer needs memory space available for processing. Processing would be very slow if you had to call up everything to be processed from a mass storage system. Instead, computers are equipped with a system memory that is a storage working space while the computer is running.