3 ms·
for computer storage bandwidth, the unit is bytes. for transmission bandwidth, the unit is bits. i think this is mostly because on the network, transmission ac
by angrok 13y ago
for computer storage bandwidth, the unit is bytes. for transmission bandwidth, the unit is bits.
i think this is mostly because on the network, transmission actually happens a bit at a time. whereas in a computer system, data is addressed at a byte level (wikipedia says it has evolved due to the fact that in the early days, a byte was used to store every character of text).
hence files have sizes in MBs etc, while ISPs have speeds in Mbps
- tonyarkles 13y agoNot strictly true that data is transferred a bit at a time! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrature_amplitude_modulation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrature_amplitude_modulation for example transmits multiple bits on the same wire at the same time.
- angrok 13y agototally agree, QAM does transfer multiple bits in fact in today's world everything from modulation and multiplexing is done digitally using network processors which actually work with bytes internally, so technically it should be possible to give network bandwidth in bytes but my point is transmission on network or data bus, always happens in "frames" and a frame of length x bits, usually contains y bits of actual data and (x-y) bits that contain parity/redundancy bits. transmission of 1 byte usually never takes exactly 8 bits during transmission, with an additional few bits to ensure correct reception