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Gigabit is a unit of digital information storage, with the symbol Gbit (or Gb).

1 gigabit = 109 = 1,000,000,000 bit
Bit

A bit is a binary numeral system numerical digit, taking a value of either 0 or 1. Binary digits are a basic unit of information Computer data storage and transmission in digital computing and digital information theory....
s (which is equal to 125 decimal megabyte
Megabyte

Megabyte is a SI prefix-multiple of the unit byte for digital information computer storage or transmission and is equal to 106 bytes....
s or 122 binary mebibyte
Mebibyte

The Mebibyte is a standards-based binary prefix of the byte, a unit of Computer data storage. Mebibyte is abbreviated MiB.The unit prefix mebi was defined by the International Electrotechnical Commission in December 1998....
s, as 8 bit
Bit

A bit is a binary numeral system numerical digit, taking a value of either 0 or 1. Binary digits are a basic unit of information Computer data storage and transmission in digital computing and digital information theory....
s equals one byte
Byte

A byte is a basic unit of measurement of Computer storage in computer science. In many computer architectures it is a Byte addressing memory address space....
)

The gigabit is closely related to the gibibit
Gibibit

A gibibit is a unit of information or computer storage, abbreviated as Gibit or Gib.The gibibit is closely related to the gigabit, which equals to 109 bits = 1,000,000,000 bits, but sometimes used to denote the gibibit value in computer technology slang....
, which is unambiguously equal to 230 bits = 1,073,741,824 bits.

Note that the difference between a billion bits and a gibibit is greater than 7%.






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Gigabit is a unit of digital information storage, with the symbol Gbit (or Gb).

1 gigabit = 109 = 1,000,000,000 bit
Bit

A bit is a binary numeral system numerical digit, taking a value of either 0 or 1. Binary digits are a basic unit of information Computer data storage and transmission in digital computing and digital information theory....
s (which is equal to 125 decimal megabyte
Megabyte

Megabyte is a SI prefix-multiple of the unit byte for digital information computer storage or transmission and is equal to 106 bytes....
s or 122 binary mebibyte
Mebibyte

The Mebibyte is a standards-based binary prefix of the byte, a unit of Computer data storage. Mebibyte is abbreviated MiB.The unit prefix mebi was defined by the International Electrotechnical Commission in December 1998....
s, as 8 bit
Bit

A bit is a binary numeral system numerical digit, taking a value of either 0 or 1. Binary digits are a basic unit of information Computer data storage and transmission in digital computing and digital information theory....
s equals one byte
Byte

A byte is a basic unit of measurement of Computer storage in computer science. In many computer architectures it is a Byte addressing memory address space....
)

The gigabit is closely related to the gibibit
Gibibit

A gibibit is a unit of information or computer storage, abbreviated as Gibit or Gib.The gibibit is closely related to the gigabit, which equals to 109 bits = 1,000,000,000 bits, but sometimes used to denote the gibibit value in computer technology slang....
, which is unambiguously equal to 230 bits = 1,073,741,824 bits.

Note that the difference between a billion bits and a gibibit is greater than 7%. This is sufficient to make it economically compelling to represent certain classes of storage device
Computer storage

Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, refers to computer components, devices, and recording medium that retain digital data used for computing for some interval of time....
s in (true) gigabits or gigabytes rather than gibibits/gibibyte
Gibibyte

Gibibyte is a unit of Computer data storage, abbreviated GiB.The gibibyte is closely related to the gigabyte, which can either be a synonym for gibibyte, or refer to 109 bytes = 1,000,000,000 bytes, depending on context ....
s. RAM and flash chip
Flash memory

Flash memory is a non-volatile memory computer storage that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It is a technology that is primarily used in memory cards and USB flash drives for general storage and transfer of data between computers and other digital products....
s are usually required to have a capacity that is a power of two
Power of two

In mathematics, a power of two is any of the integer exponentiation of the number 2 ; in other words, two multiplication by itself a certain number of times....
, but other devices like hard disk drives need not.

See also

  • Gigabyte
    Gigabyte

    Gigabyte is an SI prefix-multiple of the unit byte for Computer data storage. Since the giga- prefix means 109, gigabyte means 1,000,000,000 bytes ....
  • Gigabit per second
  • Gigabit Ethernet
    Gigabit Ethernet

    Gigabit Ethernet is a term describing various technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a Data rate units#gigabit_per_second, as defined by the IEEE 802.3-2005 standard....
     and 10 Gigabit Ethernet
    10 gigabit Ethernet

    The 10 Gigabit Ethernet or 10GbE or 10 GigE standard was first published in 2002 as IEEE Std 802.3ae-2002 and is the fastest of the Ethernet standards....