Megabit per second
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bit rates | ||
|---|---|---|
| Decimal prefixes (SI) | ||
| Name | Symbol | Multiple |
| kilobit per second | kbit/s | 103 |
| megabit per second | Mbit/s | 106 |
| gigabit per second | Gbit/s | 109 |
| terabit per second | Tbit/s | 1012 |
| Binary prefixes (IEC 60027-2) |
||
| kibibit per second | Kibit/s | 210 |
| mebibit per second | Mibit/s | 220 |
| gibibit per second | Gibit/s | 230 |
| tebibit per second | Tibit/s | 240 |
A megabit per second (abbreviated as Mbps, Mbit/s, or mbps) is a unit of data transfer rates equal to 1,000,000 bits per second (this equals 1,000 kilobits per second). Because there are 8 bits in a byte, a transfer speed of 8 megabits per second (8 Mbps) is equivalent to 1,000,000 bytes per second (approximately 976 KiB/s).
[edit] Usage Examples
The bandwidth of consumer broadband internet services is often rated in Mbps.
Data streams representing compressed video are often measured in Mbit/s:
More specific examples found on standard Comcast digital streams (transmitted in MPEG2 format):
- 2-3 Mbit/s — a low-definition digital channel with a very clean signal
- 5-6 Mbit/s — a low-definition digital channel with a digitized ("dirty") analog signal (or just an analog channel)
- 8-12 Mbit/s — a medium to high-definition digital channel with DVD quality data (equivalent to HBO-HD)
- 18-20 Mbit/s — a high-definition digital channel at 1080i (equivalent to Discovery HD)
Another example, Network cards and cables are typically available in 10/100/1000 Mbit/s. This means they can support a transfer rate of 10 or 100 or 1000 Mbit/s.
[edit] Interface and device speeds
| Interface | Megabits per second [Mbit/s] |
Megabytes per second [MB/s] |
| USB, Low speed | 1.5 Mbit/s | 0.18 MB/s |
| USB, Full speed | 12 Mbit/s | 1.5 MB/s |
| USB, Hi speed | 480 Mbit/s | 60 MB/s |
| Firewire 400 (IEEE 1394) | 400 Mbit/s | 50 MB/s |
| Firewire 800 (IEEE 1394b) | 800 Mbit/s | 100 MB/s |
| CD-ROM, 1x | 1.2 Mbit/s | 0.15 MB/s |
| CD-ROM, 52x | 62.4 Mbit/s | 7.8 MB/s |
| DVD-ROM, 1x | 11.1 Mbit/s | 1.3 MB/s |
| DVD-ROM, 16x | 177.3 Mbit/s | 21.1 MB/s |
| BD-ROM, 1x | 54.0 Mbit/s | 6.75 MB/s |
| SATA II | 2400 Mbit/s | 300 MB/s |
Note: while USB has a faster transfer rate than firewire 400, USB will actually perform slower in real world data transfers.
[edit] See also
- Megabit, a unit of information storage (as opposed to transmission)
- List of device bandwidths
- Gigabit Ethernet
- Megabyte per second (MB/s or MBps)
- Gigabit per second (Gbit/s or Gbps)
- Gigabyte per second (GB/s or GBps)
