Decimal
Value Metric
1000 kbit kilobit
10002 Mbit megabit
10003 Gbit gigabit
10004 Tbit terabit
10005 Pbit petabit
10006 Ebit exabit
10007 Zbit zettabit
10008 Ybit yottabit
10009 Rbit ronnabit
100010 Qbit quettabit
Binary
Value IEC Memory
1024 Kibit kibibit Kbit Kb kilobit
10242 Mibit mebibit Mbit Mb megabit
10243 Gibit gibibit Gbit Gb gigabit
10244 Tibit tebibit
10245 Pibit pebibit
10246 Eibit exbibit
10247 Zibit zebibit
10248 Yibit yobibit
Orders of magnitude of data

The kilobit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information or computer storage. The prefix kilo- (symbol k) is defined in the International System of Units (SI) as a multiplier of 103 (1 thousand),[1] and therefore,

1 kilobit = 103bits = 1000 bits.

The kilobit has the unit symbol kbit or kb.

Using the common byte size of 8 bits, 1 kbit is equal to 125 bytes.

The kilobit is commonly used in the expression of data rates of digital communication circuits as kilobits per second (kbit/s or kb/s), or abbreviated as kbps,[2] as in, for example, a 56 kbps PSTN circuit, or a 512 kbit/s broadband Internet connection.

The unit symbol kb (lowercase 'b') is typographically similar to the international standard unit symbol for the kilobyte, i.e. kB (uppercase 'B'). The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) recommends the symbol kbit instead of kb for kilobit. The prefix kilo- is often used in fields of computer science and information technology with a meaning of multiplication by 1024 instead of 1000, contrary to international standards, in conjunction with the base unit byte and bit, in which case it is to be written as Ki-, with a capital letter K,[3] e.g., 1 Kibit = 1024 bits. The decimal SI definition, 1 kbit/s = 1000 bit/s, is used uniformly in the context of telecommunication transmission speeds.

The kilobit is closely related to the kibibit, a unit multiple derived from the binary prefix kibi- (symbol Ki) of the same order of magnitude,[3] which is equal to 210bits = 1024 bits, or approximately 2% larger than the kilobit. Despite the definitions of these new prefixes, meant for binary-based quantities of storage by international standards organizations, memory semiconductor chips are still marketed using the metric prefix names to designate binary multiples.

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ "Definitions of the SI units: The twenty SI prefixes". physics.nist.gov. 13 January 2010.
  2. ^ "Services Update". IEEE. Archived from the original on 2020-09-04. Retrieved 2019-08-05.
  3. ^ a b "Definitions of the SI units: The binary prefixes". physics.nist.gov.