Binary Digits

A microcomputer works the same as any other electrical device in that it really only knows two states: on and off. The computer is either getting an electrical impulse (on), or it's not (off). The binary digit 1 represents the "on" state, and the "off" condition is represented by the number 0. The word "bit" is simply derived from binary digit. While working with 1s and 0s may seem too elementary for the computing power of a microcomputer, keep in mind that a computer is remarkably fast. The ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) character set is used to translate these bits into characters. The ASCII code is made up of 128 characters and uses 7 bits to represent these characters. In this scheme, the eighth bit is used for error checking. IBM has since introduced the Extended Character Set which allows for 256 different characters, where the eighth bit is used for special symbols. Computers typically work with bits in groups of eight. Eight bits grouped together is called a byte. It takes one byte (eight bits of 1s and 0s) to represent a letter of the alphabet. For example, the letter "A" is actually "01000001" to a computer. It is easy to see how it may take thousands of bits to make up a single file, be it a program, a document, or a spreadsheet. For that reason, very large numbers are used when discussing various computer components. The following chart will help familiarize you with the way a computer "counts": 8 Bits = 1024 Bytes 1024 KB 1024 MB 1024 GB 1024 TB= 1 Byte = 1 Kilobyte (KB) = 1 Megabyte (MB) = 1 Gigabyte (GB) = 1 Terabyte (TB) 1 Exabyte (EB)