What Does Bits Per Second (bps) Mean?Bits per second (bps) is a measure used to show the average rate at which data is transferred between a computer and a data transmission system. The bit rate is generally measured in bits per second (bps) and sometimes bytes per second (Bps). Show Techopedia Explains Bits Per Second (bps)Bits per second is the standard measure of bit rate speed. However, millions of bits can be transferred in a second and measuring in single bit units can be cumbersome. To simplify data transfer rates, an International System of Units prefix is used. These include kilo, mega and giga. This content has been archived, and is no longer maintained by Indiana University. Information here may no longer be accurate, and links may no longer be available or reliable. A bit is a binary digit, the smallest increment of data on a computer. A bit can hold only one of two values: 0 or 1, corresponding to the electrical values of off or on, respectively. Because bits are so small, you rarely work with information one bit at a time. Bits are usually assembled into a group of eight to form a byte. A byte contains enough information to store a single ASCII character, like "h". A kilobyte (KB) is 1,024 bytes, not one thousand bytes as might be expected, because computers use binary (base two) math, instead of a decimal (base ten) system. Computer storage and memory is often measured in megabytes (MB) and gigabytes (GB). A medium-sized novel contains about 1 MB of information. 1 MB is 1,024 kilobytes, or 1,048,576 (1024x1024) bytes, not one million bytes. Similarly, one 1 GB is 1,024 MB, or 1,073,741,824 (1024x1024x1024) bytes. A terabyte (TB) is 1,024 GB; 1 TB is about the same amount of information as all of the books in a large library, or roughly 1,610 CDs worth of data. A petabyte (PB) is 1,024 TB. 1 PB of data, if written on DVDs, would create roughly 223,100 DVDs, i.e., a stack about 878 feet tall, or a stack of CDs a mile high. Indiana University is now building storage systems capable of holding petabytes of data. An exabyte (EB) is 1,024 PB. A zettabyte (ZB) is 1,024 EB. Finally, a yottabyte (YB) is 1,024 ZB. Many hard drive manufacturers use a decimal number system to define amounts of storage space. As a result, 1 MB is defined as one million bytes, 1 GB is defined as one billion bytes, and so on. Since your computer uses a binary system as mentioned above, you may notice a discrepancy between your hard drive's published capacity and the capacity acknowledged by your computer. For example, a hard drive that is said to contain 10 GB of storage space using a decimal system is actually capable of storing 10,000,000,000 bytes. However, in a binary system, 10 GB is 10,737,418,240 bytes. As a result, instead of acknowledging 10 GB, your computer will acknowledge 9.31 GB. This is not a malfunction but a matter of different definitions. We count in base 10 by powers of 10: 101 = 10 102 = 10*10 = 100 103 = 10*10*10 = 1,000 106 = 1,000,000 Computers count by base 2: 21 = 2 22 = 2*2 = 4 23 = 2*2*2 = 8 210 = 1,024 220 = 1,048,576 So in computer jargon, the following units are used:
Note: The names and abbreviations for numbers of bytes are easily confused with the notations for bits. The abbreviations for numbers of bits use a lower-case "b" instead of an upper-case "B". Since one byte is made up of eight bits, this difference can be significant. For example, if a broadband Internet connection is advertised with a download speed of 3.0 Mbps, its speed is 3.0 megabits per second, or 0.375 megabytes per second (which would be abbreviated as 0.375 MBps). Bits and bit rates (bits over time, as in bits per second [bps]) are most commonly used to describe connection speeds, so pay particular attention when comparing Internet connection providers and services. This document was developed with support from National Science Foundation (NSF) grants 1053575 and 1548562. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF. This is document ackw in the Knowledge
Base. Recommended textbook solutions Introduction to Algorithms3rd EditionCharles E. Leiserson, Clifford Stein, Ronald L. Rivest, Thomas H. Cormen 726 solutions
Computer Organization and Design MIPS Edition: The Hardware/Software Interface5th EditionDavid A. Patterson, John L. Hennessy 220 solutions Starting Out with C++ from Control Structures to Objects8th EditionGodfrey Muganda, Judy Walters, Tony Gaddis 1,294 solutions
Information Technology Project Management: Providing Measurable Organizational Value5th EditionJack T. Marchewka 346 solutions What is measured in number of bits per second?In data communications, bits per second (bps or bit/sec) is a common measure of data speed for computer modems and transmission carriers. As the term implies, the speed in bps is equal to the number of bits transmitted or received each second.
Is a measure of how much data can move measured in bits per second?Bandwidth is measured as the amount of data that can be transferred from one point to another within a network in a specific amount of time. Typically, bandwidth is expressed as a bitrate and measured in bits per second (bps).
Is measured in bits per second and Mbps?Megabits per second (Mbps) are units of measurement for network bandwidth and throughput. They are used to show how fast a network or internet connection is. Each Mbps represents the capacity to transfer 1 million bits each second, or roughly one small photo per second. It may also be expressed as Mbit/s or Mb/s.
Is bandwidth measured in hertz or bits per second?Bandwidth is the difference between the upper and lower frequencies in a continuous band of frequencies. It is typically measured in hertz, and depending on context, may specifically refer to passband bandwidth or baseband bandwidth.
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