The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer [1][2] and …

Sep 7, 2025 · Definition and history of a byte, a data unit, coined in 1956, including its relation to bits and its role in modern computing, storage, and measurement.

May 8, 2025 · Historically, the term kilobyte (KB) was used to represent 1,024 bytes, but for simplicity, many people began referring to it as 1,000 bytes. This led to confusion, especially …

Nov 14, 2025 · The string of bits making up a byte is processed as a unit by a computer; bytes are the smallest operable units of storage in computer technology. A byte can represent the …

At the smallest scale in the computer, information is stored as bits and bytes. In this section, we'll learn how bits and bytes encode information.

Mar 2, 2023 · In most computer systems, a byte is a unit of data that is eight binary digits long. A byte is the unit most computers use to represent a character such as a letter, number or …

A file or disk drive on a computer uses prefixes to identify their size in bytes. For example, one kilobyte is equivalent to 1000 bytes since "kilo-" is a metric prefix that indicates 1000.

Conversion between bits and bytes is a simple calculation: divide by 8 to convert from bits to bytes or multiply by 8 to convert from bytes to bits. Try it yourself!

Byte (B) is the basic unit of digital information. A byte consists of 8 bits. A byte represents one character of text, such as a letter or number. The size of a single byte is quite small, but …

The meaning of BYTE is a unit of computer information or data-storage capacity that consists of a group of eight bits and that is used especially to represent an alphanumeric character.