In Computer Graphics we have to deal with large numbers. Even in the smallest units. Digital (or binary) basically means that any information is split up in fractions of 1 and 0.
That’s how Computers are working (roughly spoken). Electricity goes ON and OFF. ON and OFF. Billions of times per second. ON = 1, OFF = 0. Those numbers are called BITS which is an Acronym of Binary Unit. Those Units are put together in sets of eight, for example looking like this 01101010. Early Computers were using those sets for describing letters, another important ingredient in this technology. And those basics have not really changed through the years. As there are eight BITS each time, the sets got the name Octet or – much more popular – BYTES. Everyone is using this term today, consciously or inconsciously. Which version of the iPhone do you got? The 64 GB one… stuff like this.
So BYTES are the unit for measuring digital volumes and quantities. Storage space, transfer volume, speed, etc. – BYTES are everywhere. A classical 3.5 inch Floppy Disk (released in 1987) could store data up to 1.44 Megabyte. So, 1 Million 440 Thousand BYTES. That’s already a lot. But today it’s nothing. It’s much less than the average size of a photo on Instagram. Since Computer technology has become a big business and a tool that has been introduced into all fields of human culture, the capacities of dealing with data have risen dramatically.
Here some large numbers:
A single character (without the program displaying it) = 1 Byte
50 KB (Kilobyte / Thousand Bytes = a short email) = 50.000 Bytes
1 MB (Megabyte / Million Bytes = a small photo) = 1.000.000 Bytes
1 GB (Gigabyte / Billion Bytes = a movie stream) = 1.000.000.000 Bytes
1 TB (Terabyte / Trillion Bytes = an average hard drive) = 1.000.000.000.000 Bytes
Count one of them through, starting at one. It will take you some time…
jmucomputergraphics 