Units of information
From Wiki @ Karl Jones dot com
In computing and telecommunications, a unit of information is the capacity of some standard data storage system or communication channel, used to measure the capacities of other systems and channels.
Contents
[hide]Description
In information theory, units of information are also used to measure the information contents or entropy of random variables.
Bit and byte
The most common units are:
- The bit, the capacity of a system which can exist in only two states
- The byte (or octet), which is equivalent to eight bits
Multiples of these units can be formed from these with the SI prefixes (power-of-ten prefixes) or the newer IEC binary prefixes (binary power prefixes).
Information capacity is a dimensionless quantity, because it refers to a count of binary symbols.
See also
External links
- Unit of information @ Wikipedia
