CS Terms - Getting Started

Storage

• bit is 0 or 1, stands for “binary digit”
• byte is 8 bits, written for example like 1001 0101
• B - abbreviation for byte
• b - abbreviation for bit
• KB - kilobyte, 1000 bytes
• MB - megabyte, 1 million bytes
• GB - gigabyte, 1 billion bytes
• TB - terabyte, 1 trillion bytes

Binary/Hex/integer limits

• 15 = 1111 binary = F hex
• 255 = 1111 1111 binary = FF hex
• unsigned 8 bit integer is at most 255
• signed 8 bit integer is between -128 and 127
• unsigned 32 bit integer ranges from 0 to 2³²-1, about 4 billion
• signed 32 bit integer ranges from -2³¹ to 2³¹-1, about +/-2 billion
• unsigned k bit integer at most 2^k-1