Gigabit

This article is about the unit of information. For the networking technology, see Gigabit Ethernet.
Multiples of bits
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
Binary
Value JEDEC IEC
1024 Kbit kilobit Kibit kibibit
10242 Mbit megabit Mibit mebibit
10243 Gbit gigabit Gibit gibibit
10244 - - Tibit tebibit
10245 - - Pibit pebibit
10246 - - Eibit exbibit
10247 - - Zibit zebibit
10248 - - Yibit yobibit
See also
Nibble
Byte
Bit and Byte prefixes
Orders of magnitude of data

The gigabit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information or computer storage. The prefix giga (symbol G) is defined in the International System of Units (SI) as a multiplier of 109 (1 billion, short scale),[1] and therefore

1 gigabit = 109bits = 1000000000bits.

The gigabit has the unit symbol Gbit or Gb.

Using the common byte size of 8 bits, 1 Gbit is equal to 125 megabytes (MB) or approximately 119 mebibytes (MiB).

The gigabit is closely related to the gibibit, a unit multiple derived from the binary prefix gibi (symbol Gi) of the same order of magnitude,[2] which is equal to 230bits = 1073741824bits, or approximately 7% larger than the gigabit.

See also

References

  1. ↑ The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty: SI prefixes
  2. ↑ The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty: Prefixes for binary multiples