Why do we use bytes?

[Atreyo Bhattacharjee]

Why do we use bytes and not bits? Also, why is 1 byte, 8 bits?

 

[USAFRet]

Why do we use bytes and not bits? Also, why is 1 byte, 8 bits?

Why?
Because magnets do not play well with trits and trytes.

 

[Supahos]

They use bits mostly because honestly it sounds bigger and tricks people since the number is bigger. Most people would buy 8Mb/s and run away from 1MB/s despite them being the same speed.

 

[Atreyo Bhattacharjee]

They use bits mostly because honestly it sounds bigger and tricks people since the number is bigger. Most people would buy 8Mb/s and run away from 1MB/s despite them being the same speed.

But why is 1 byte 8 bits?

 

[Wolfshadw]

They use Bytes because it's a lot easier to say 1 kilobyte than it is to say 1024 bits. It's even easier to say 1 Megabyte than it is to say 1024000 bits (or whatever it actually is). Now we're talking Gigabytes, Terabytes and Petabytes. Do you really want to try and call out those numbers in bits?

As for why one byte equals eight bits, it's a wild guess on my part, but I'd say it's because at the time it became cumbersome to say everything in bits, Octal was the preferred platform over Binary. Any three digit Binary character could be identified as a single Octal character.

-Wolf sends

 

[Karadjgne]

It stems back to machine language, which is binary 0's and 1's or off/on. Each 0 or 1 is a bit, but on order to make use of larger numbers, that was added up to 8 bits, or 1 Byte. 2x2x2 = 8. Same way as ppl use 1k instead of 1000, 1Kb = 1024 bits. The machines don't care, it's just long numbers for them, but to programmers and other ppl reading the numbers, having a figure like 1TB is much easier to read than 2^40 bytes or 1,099,511,627,776 bytes or 8,796,093,022,208 bits.

Could you really imagine going into a store and buying a 8,796,093,022,208 bit HDD? Kinda like asking why do ppl use a $1 bill, not a 100¢ bill. When you start thinking about a $100 bill, would you really want to try paying with a 10,000¢ bill instead?

 

[Atreyo Bhattacharjee]

They use Bytes because it's a lot easier to say 1 kilobyte than it is to say 1024 bits. It's even easier to say 1 Megabyte than it is to say 1024000 bits (or whatever it actually is). Now we're talking Gigabytes, Terabytes and Petabytes. Do you really want to try and call out those numbers in bits?

As for why one byte equals eight bits, it's a wild guess on my part, but I'd say it's because at the time it became cumbersome to say everything in bits, Octal was the preferred platform over Binary. Any three digit Binary character could be identified as a single Octal character.

-Wolf sends

Then could'nt we just say kilobit and gigabit?

 

[Wolfshadw]

They use Bytes because it's a lot easier to say 1 kilobyte than it is to say 1024 bits. It's even easier to say 1 Megabyte than it is to say 1024000 bits (or whatever it actually is). Now we're talking Gigabytes, Terabytes and Petabytes. Do you really want to try and call out those numbers in bits?

As for why one byte equals eight bits, it's a wild guess on my part, but I'd say it's because at the time it became cumbersome to say everything in bits, Octal was the preferred platform over Binary. Any three digit Binary character could be identified as a single Octal character.

-Wolf sends

Then could'nt we just say kilobit and gigabit?

We could, and in some cases, we still do (think Megabit and Gigabit networks), but there's marketing behind it as well. You want to impress without getting too technical, otherwise you scare the non-techies away.

K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple, Stupid!

Where do you think this came from?

-Wolf sends

 

[Wolfshadw]

All of what follows is pure conjecture and is in NO WAY based on factual knowledge

There's likely a psychological component to this as well that reaches are far back as the first human migrations and the first child asking, "Are we there yet?"

We, as humans, live in the here and now. All of our experiences are here and now. We sense things as we experience them. We experience our entire lives in a continuous series of instances. And while we may have a fairly good idea of what will happen from one instance to the next, if you expand that time out to the next second, minute, hour, day, year. etc... as measured in instances (and that's the key part) becomes less and less reliant.

A simple example:

Someone asks you, "What are you doing today?"
Simple enough question. Easy to answer.

Someone asks you, "What are you doing for the next 24 hours?"
That's going to raise an eyebrow and introduce a question.

Someone asks you, "What are you doing for the next 86,400 seconds"
You're dumbfounded.

Three identical questions and three different responses simply because of the numbers involved.

Next example. Someone asks you how far it is to the moon. Given that most people are more familiar with traveling in miles per hour, which is the more comfortable answer?
A) Three days
B) 240,000 miles

"Gramma June ain't but 150 miles away an' it took us half a day to get there!"

It's a natural and historical fact. Smaller numbers make us feel better even if they are deceptive. It's a lot easier to walk one mile than it is to walk 5280 feet. You don't have to count that high.

[/conjecture]

-Wolf sends

 

[jessty]

I learned a lot from this thread, I thought it's a foolish question but it's not. We really need to know the differences especially if we use them often. Great thread and the best answer is very helpful. For people like me that has average knowledge in technical stuff, this place is a nice place to dwell around.