Binary and data representation - EdexcelData storage and compression
All data in a computer is represented in binary, whether it is numbers, text, images or sound. The computer software processes the data according to its content.
Calculating storage space is helpful when managing projects as it helps the user to know how much they can store.
Example
There are 150 music files, each of which is approximately 6 megabytes (6 MB) in size. There's a 1 gigabyte (1 GB) USB memory stick on which these files are to be stored. In order to work out how much storage space is required to store all these files on the stick, the following calculation can be used:
150 x 6 megabytes = 900 megabytes
To determine whether the USB memory stick has enough capacity to store all 150 music files, the units used for both the files and the storage device need to be the same.
The size of the music files is in megabytes, so the capacity of the USB will also need to be converted to megabytes.
In this example, the USB memory stick has a 1 gigabyte (GB) capacity:
1 gigabyte (GB) = 1,000 megabytes (MB)
The capacity of the USB memory stick is now expressed in megabytes. The following calculation will determine how many 6 megabyte (mb) files this storage device can hold:
1000 / 6 = 166.66 files
As there are 150 music files, they will all fit on the USB memory stick.
This process can be applied to files of any type and size, as shown in the table below show:
