All data in a computer is stored and processed using bits, which are the smallest unit of data and can hold just one of two values: 0 or 1.
These binary digits are the foundation of all digital information, including text, images, video, and software. Because a single bit can only represent two states, we group them together to form larger, more useful units. Eight bits make one byte, which is enough to represent a single character like a letter or number.
As technology evolved and files grew larger, it became necessary to work with even bigger units. That's why we use kibibytes (KiB), mebibytes (MiB), gibibytes (GiB), and tebibytes (TiB)—each one is 1024 times larger than the previous.
We can convert between the different units by doing the following (step-up):
|
From |
To |
Expression |
Explanation |
|
bits |
bytes |
number of bits ÷ 8 |
8 bits in 1 byte |
|
bytes |
kibibytes (KiB) |
number of bytes ÷ 1024 |
1024 bytes in 1 KiB |
|
kibibytes (KiB) |
mebibytes (MiB) |
number of KiB ÷ 1024 |
1024 KiB in 1 MiB |
|
mebibytes (MiB) |
gibibytes (GiB) |
number of MiB ÷ 1024 |
1024 MiB in 1 GiB |
|
gibibytes (GiB) |
tebibytes (TiB) |
number of GiB ÷ 1024 |
1024 GiB in 1 TiB |
For the GCSE exam specification you are not required to calculate the final number - just give an expression that would correctly solve the problem.
Examples
Convert 4096 bytes into kibibytes (KiB).
Step-by-step:
Expression:
4096 ÷ 1024
Convert 2.5 GiB into bits.
Step-by-step:
Expression:
2.5 × 1024 × 1024 × 1024 × 8