Bits – basic units of memory

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 684.

Units of memory

UNIT 4 BITS AND BITES

Useful expressions

It has got... The hard disk can hold...

It's very fast. It runs at... As for the Internet...

The standard RAM memory... and it is expandable

I need a SuperVGA monitor because ...

Exercise 1.With a partner, try to answer these questions.

1 How many digits does a binary system use? What is a 'bit'?

2 What is the difference between binary notation and the decimal system? Give some examples.

3 What is a collection of eight bits called?

4 One kilobyte (IK) equals 1,024 bytes.

Can you work out the value of these units? (kilo-: one thousand)

1 megabyte =___ bytes/1,024 kilobytes (mega-: one million)

1 gigabyte = ___bytes/1,024 megabytes (giga-: one thousand million)

5 What does the acronym 'ASC II' stand for? What is the purpose of this code?

Now read the text to check your answers or to find the correct answer.

Information is processed and stored in computers as electrical signals. A computer contains thousands of electronic circuits connected by switches that can only be in one of two possible states: ON (the current is flowing through the wire) or OFF (the current is not flowing through the wire). To represent these two conditions we use binary notation in which 1 means ON and 0 means OFF. This is the only way a computer can 'understand' anything. Everything about computers is based upon this binary process. Each 1 or 0 is called a binary digit or bit.