Megabyte (MB)

Megabyte (MB)

What Does Megabyte (MB) Mean?

Megabyte (MB) is a data measurement unitapplied to digital computer or media storage. One MB equals one million (106 or1,000,000) bytes. The International System of Units (SI) defines the megaprefix as a 10 multiplier or one million (1,000,000) bits. The binary megaprefix is 1,048,576 bits or 1,024 Kb. The SI and binary differential isapproximately 4.86 percent.

Central processing units (CPU) are builtwith data control instructions for bits being the smallest data measurementunit. A bit, the smallest data measurement unit, is a magnetized and polarizedbinary digit that represents stored digital data in random access memory (RAM)or read-only memory (ROM). A bit is measured in seconds and characterized bylogical values 0 (off) or 1 (on). Eight bits equal one byte. Bytes measuredevice communication speed in thousands of bytes per second.

Megabytes continue to apply to a number ofmeasurement contexts, including digitally supported computer and media data,memory and software according to file format as well as compression and drivecapabilities. MB measures text format, bitmap images, video/media files orcompressed/uncomp ressed audio. For example, 1,024,000 bytes (1,000 × 1,024)often represents the formatted aptitudes of a 3.5-inch hard drive floppy discwith 1.44 MB (1,474,560 bytes). Internet files are often measured in MBs. Forexample, a network connection with an eight MBps DTR must reach a web DTR ofone megabyte (MB) per second (MBps).

In 2000, the Institute of Electrical andElectronics Engineers (IEEE) incorporated the International ElectrotechnicalCommission (IEC) formal approval of SI metric prefixes (for example, MB as onemillion bytes and KB as one thousand bytes).