Home  >  Article  >  What is the basic unit for computers to store and process data?

What is the basic unit for computers to store and process data?

王林
王林Original
2020-12-25 15:58:2157107browse

The basic unit for computers to store and process data is bytes. The information stored in the computer is represented by binary coding. A binary bit is the smallest unit that constitutes memory. Every 8 binary bits form a storage unit, called a byte. The basic unit of memory capacity is a byte. ).

What is the basic unit for computers to store and process data?

#The operating environment of this article: windows10 system, thinkpad t480 computer.

The basic unit of computer data storage is bytes.

Analysis:

The information stored in the computer is represented by binary encoding. A binary bit (bit) is the smallest unit of memory. Every 8 binary bits form a storage unit, called a byte, and the basic unit of memory capacity is Byte.

Byte (Byte) is a unit of measurement used by computer information technology to measure storage capacity. It also represents data types and language characters in some computer programming languages.

One byte stores an 8-bit unsigned number, and the stored value range is 0-255. Like characters, byte type variables only require one byte (8 bits) of memory space to store.

Extended knowledge:

Byte (Byte) is the unit of binary data. A byte is usually 8 bits long. However, some older computer architectures use different lengths. To avoid confusion, in most international literature the word byte is used instead of byte. In most computer systems, a byte is an 8-bit unit of data. Most computers use a byte to represent a character, number, or other character. A byte can also represent a series of binary bits. In some computer systems, 4 bytes represent a word, which is the unit of data that the computer can efficiently process when executing instructions. Some language descriptions require 2 bytes to represent a character, which is called a double-byte character set. Some processors are capable of handling double-byte or single-byte instructions. Bytes are often abbreviated as "B" and bits are often abbreviated as a lowercase "b". The size of computer memory is usually expressed in bytes.

B and bit

Data storage is in "byte" (Byte), and data transmission is mostly in "bit" (bit, also known as "bit"). ") as the unit, one bit represents a 0 or 1 (i.e. binary), and every 8 bits (bit, abbreviated as b) constitute a byte (Byte, abbreviated as B), which is the smallest level of information unit.

Word (Word)

In a computer, a string of numbers that are processed or calculated as a whole is called a computer word, or word for short. Words are usually divided into bytes (each byte is usually 8 bits). In memory, each cell typically stores one word. Therefore each word is addressable. The length of a word is expressed in bits.

Word length

The number of bits contained in each word of a computer is called the word length. The calculated word length refers to the number of binary digits it can process at one time. . Generally, the word length of large computers is 32-64 bits, that of small computers is 12-32 bits, and that of microcomputers is 4-16 bits. Word length is an important factor in measuring computer performance.

(Learning video sharing: Programming video)

The above is the detailed content of What is the basic unit for computers to store and process data?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

Statement:
The content of this article is voluntarily contributed by netizens, and the copyright belongs to the original author. This site does not assume corresponding legal responsibility. If you find any content suspected of plagiarism or infringement, please contact admin@php.cn