Know what computer memory is

Units of computer memory measurement
ByteBits and Bytes
  • The smallest component of computer data is the bit. Each bit can be in one of two states 1 or 0 with the 1 standing for On and the 0 standing for Off. Bits are combined in sets of eight to form characters, such as letters of the alphabet. For example, 01000001 is used to represent the letter A in binary code. This group of eight bits makes a byte.

  • You may see hardware and software described as being a certain number of bits. This refers to how much information the hardware or software can process at any one time. For example, a 256-bit graphics card can process 256 bits of data at a time.

Megabytes
  • A megabyte (MB) is often used to measure the storage capacity of a disk or the amount of main memory.

  • A megabyte is 1,048,576 bytes (1024 kilobytes). 1MB is about as much data as 500 pages of double-spaced text.
Gigabytes
  • A gigabyte (GB) is equivalent to 1,024MB. The storage capacity of most storage devices, such as hard drives, is measured in gigabytes.

  • It is now becoming more common for main memory to be in the 1 Gigabyte region.
Terabytes
  • A terabyte (TB) is equivalent to 1,024GB. Terabytes are more commonly found in mainframes and where extremely large data is stored e.g. Movie Studios post-production labs.

  • A terabyte is about 1,000,000,000,000 bytes of information — that’s around 500,000,000 pages of double spaced text.
Files
  • A file is a collection of information stored as a single unit. When they have been saved, any of the following may be regarded as a file:
    • A computer program.
    • Word-processed text.
    • A spreadsheet.
    • A computer graphic.