Data-rate units
Name | Symbol | Multiple | |
---|---|---|---|
bit per second | bit/s | 1 | 1 |
Metric prefixes (SI) | |||
kilobit per second | kbit/s | 103 | 10001 |
megabit per second | Mbit/s | 106 | 10002 |
gigabit per second | Gbit/s | 109 | 10003 |
terabit per second | Tbit/s | 1012 | 10004 |
Binary prefixes (IEC 80000-13) | |||
kibibit per second | Kibit/s | 210 | 10241 |
mebibit per second | Mibit/s | 220 | 10242 |
gibibit per second | Gibit/s | 230 | 10243 |
tebibit per second | Tibit/s | 240 | 10244 |
In
Standards for unit symbols and prefixes
Unit symbol
The
Unit prefixes
In both the
Variations
In 1999, the IEC published Amendment 2 to "
Decimal multiples of bits
These units are often used in a manner inconsistent with the IEC standard.
Kilobit per second
Kilobit per second (symbol kbit/s or kb/s, often abbreviated "kbps") is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
- 1,000 bits per second
- 125 bytes per second
Megabit per second
Megabit per second (symbol Mbit/s or Mb/s, often abbreviated "Mbps") is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
- 1,000 kilobits per second
- 1,000,000 bits per second
- 125,000 bytes per second
- 125 kilobytes per second
Gigabit per second
Gigabit per second (symbol Gbit/s or Gb/s, often abbreviated "Gbps") is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
- 1,000 megabits per second
- 1,000,000 kilobits per second
- 1,000,000,000 bits per second
- 125,000,000 bytes per second
- 125 megabytes per second
Terabit per second
Terabit per second (symbol Tbit/s or Tb/s, sometimes abbreviated "Tbps") is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
- 1,000 gigabits per second
- 1,000,000 megabits per second
- 1,000,000,000 kilobits per second
- 1,000,000,000,000 bits per second
- 125,000,000,000 bytes per second
- 125 gigabytes per second
Decimal multiples of bytes
These units are often not used in the suggested ways; see § Variations.
Kilobyte per second
kilobyte per second (kB/s) (can be abbreviated as kBps) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
- 8,000 bits per second
- 1,000 bytes per second
- 8 kilobits per second
Megabyte per second
megabyte per second (MB/s) (can be abbreviated as MBps) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
- 8,000,000 bits per second
- 1,000,000 bytes per second
- 1,000 kilobytes per second
- 8 megabits per second
Gigabyte per second
gigabyte per second (GB/s) (can be abbreviated as GBps) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
- 8,000,000,000 bits per second
- 1,000,000,000 bytes per second
- 1,000,000 kilobytes per second
- 1,000 megabytes per second
- 8 gigabits per second
Terabyte per second
terabyte per second (TB/s) (can be abbreviated as TBps) is a unit of data transfer rate equal to:
- 8,000,000,000,000 bits per second
- 1,000,000,000,000 bytes per second
- 1,000,000,000 kilobytes per second
- 1,000,000 megabytes per second
- 1,000 gigabytes per second
- 8 terabits per second
Conversion table
Name | Symbol | bit per second | byte per second | bit per second (formula) |
byte per second (formula) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
bit per second | bit/s | 1 | 0.125 | 1 | 1/8 |
byte per second | B/s | 8 | 1 | 8 | 1 |
kilobit per second | kbit/s | 1,000 | 125 | 103 | 1/8 × 103 |
kibibit per second
|
Kibit/s | 1,024 | 128 | 210 | 27 |
kilobyte per second | kB/s | 8,000 | 1,000 | 8 × 103 | 103 |
kibibyte per second
|
KiB/s | 8,192 | 1,024 | 213 | 210 |
megabit per second | Mbit/s | 1,000,000 | 125,000 | 106 | 1/8 × 106 |
mebibit per second
|
Mibit/s | 1,048,576 | 131,072 | 220 | 217 |
megabyte per second | MB/s | 8,000,000 | 1,000,000 | 8 × 106 | 106 |
mebibyte per second
|
MiB/s | 8,388,608 | 1,048,576 | 223 | 220 |
gigabit per second
|
Gbit/s | 1,000,000,000 | 125,000,000 | 109 | 1/8 × 109 |
gibibit per second
|
Gibit/s | 1,073,741,824 | 134,217,728 | 230 | 227 |
gigabyte per second | GB/s | 8,000,000,000 | 1,000,000,000 | 8 × 109 | 109 |
gibibyte per second
|
GiB/s | 8,589,934,592 | 1,073,741,824 | 233 | 230 |
terabit per second
|
Tbit/s | 1,000,000,000,000 | 125,000,000,000 | 1012 | 1/8 × 1012 |
tebibit per second
|
Tibit/s | 1,099,511,627,776 | 137,438,953,472 | 240 | 237 |
terabyte per second
|
TB/s | 8,000,000,000,000 | 1,000,000,000,000 | 8 × 1012 | 1012 |
tebibyte per second
|
TiB/s | 8,796,093,022,208 | 1,099,511,627,776 | 243 | 240 |
Examples of bit rates
Quantity | Unit | bits per second | bytes per second | Field | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
56 | kbit/s | 56,000 | 7,000 | Networking | 56 kbit modem – 56,000 bit/s |
64 | kbit/s | 64,000 | 8,000 | Networking | 64 kbit/s in an ISDN B channel or best quality, uncompressed telephone line. |
1,536 | kbit/s | 1,536,000 | 192,000 | Networking | 24 channels of telephone in the US, or a good VTC T1. |
10 | Mbit/s | 10,000,000 | 1,250,000 | Networking | 107 bit/s is the speed of classic Ethernet: 10BASE2, 10BASE5, 10BASE-T |
10 | Mbit/s | 10,000,000 | 1,250,000 | Biology | Research suggests that the human retina transmits data to the brain at the rate of ca. 107 bit/s[1][2][dubious ] |
54 | Mbit/s | 54,000,000 | 6,750,000 | Networking | 802.11g, Wireless G LAN
|
100 | Mbit/s | 100,000,000 | 12,500,000 | Networking | Fast Ethernet |
600 | Mbit/s | 600,000,000 | 75,000,000 | Networking | 802.11n , Wireless N LAN
|
1 | Gbit/s | 1,000,000,000 | 125,000,000 | Networking | 1 Gigabit Ethernet |
10 | Gbit/s | 10,000,000,000 | 1,250,000,000 | Networking | 10 Gigabit Ethernet |
100 | Gbit/s | 100,000,000,000 | 12,500,000,000 | Networking | 100 Gigabit Ethernet |
1 | Tbit/s | 1,000,000,000,000 | 125,000,000,000 | Networking | SEA-ME-WE 4 submarine communications cable – 1.28 terabits per second[3] |
4 | kbit/s | 4,000 | 500 | Audio data | minimum achieved for encoding recognizable speech (using special-purpose speech codecs )
|
8 | kbit/s | 8,000 | 1,000 | Audio data | low bit rate telephone quality |
32 | kbit/s | 32,000 | 4,000 | Audio data | MW quality and ADPCM voice in telephony, doubling the capacity of a 30 chan link to 60 ch. |
128 | kbit/s | 128,000 | 16,000 | Audio data | 128 kbit/s MP3 – 128,000 bit/s |
192 | kbit/s | 192,000 | 24,000 | Audio data | 192 kbit/s MP3 – 192,000 bit/s |
1,411.2 | kbit/s | 1,411,200 | 176,400 | Audio data | kHz × 2 channels)
|
2 | Mbit/s | 2,000,000 | 250,000 | Video data | 30 channels of telephone audio or a Video Tele-Conference at VHS quality |
8 | Mbit/s | 8,000,000 | 1,000,000 | Video data | DVD quality |
27 | Mbit/s | 27,000,000 | 3,375,000 | Video data | HDTV quality |
1.244 | Gbit/s | 1,244,000,000 | 155,500,000 | Networking | SONET data channel
|
9.953 | Gbit/s | 9,953,000,000 | 1,244,125,000 | Networking | SONET data channel
|
39.813 | Gbit/s | 39,813,000,000 | 4,976,625,000 | Networking | SONET data channel, the fastest in current use
|
60 | MB/s | 480,000,000 | 60,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | USB 2.0 High-Speed
|
98.3 | MB/s | 786,432,000 | 98,304,000 | Computer data interfaces | FireWire IEEE 1394b-2002 S800
|
120 | MB/s | 960,000,000 | 120,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | Harddrive read, Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103Uj[4]
|
133 | MB/s | 1,064,000,000 | 133,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | Parallel ATA UDMA 6 |
133 | MB/s | 1,064,000,000 | 133,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | PCI 32-bit at 33 MHz (standard configuration)
|
188 | MB/s | 1,504,000,000 | 188,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | SATA I 1.5 Gbit/s – First generation
|
375 | MB/s | 3,000,000,000 | 375,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | SATA II 3Gbit/s – Second generation
|
500 | MB/s | 4,000,000,000 | 500,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | PCI Express x1 v2.0 |
5.0 | Gbit/s | 5,000,000,000 | 625,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | USB 3.1 Gen1
|
750 | MB/s | 6,000,000,000 | 750,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | SATA III 6 Gbit/s – Third generation
|
1,067 | MB/s | 8,533,333,333 | 1,066,666,667 | Computer data interfaces | PCI-X 64 bit 133 MHz |
10 | Gbit/s | 10,000,000,000 | 1,250,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | USB 3.1 SuperSpeed+ - a.k.a. USB 3.1 Gen2
|
1,250 | MB/s | 10,000,000,000 | 1,250,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | Thunderbolt |
2,500 | MB/s | 20,000,000,000 | 2,500,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | Thunderbolt 2 |
5,000 | MB/s | 40,000,000,000 | 5,000,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | Thunderbolt 3
|
8,000 | MB/s | 64,000,000,000 | 8,000,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | PCI Express x16 v2.0 |
12,000 | MB/s | 96,000,000,000 | 12,000,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | InfiniBand 12X QDR |
16,000 | MB/s | 128,000,000,000 | 16,000,000,000 | Computer data interfaces | PCI Express x16 v3.0 |
See also
- Binary prefix
- Bit rate
- List of interface bit rates
- Orders of magnitude (bit rate)
- Orders of magnitude (data)
- Metric prefix
- Instructions per second
Notes
- ^ "Penn Researchers Calculate How Much the Eye Tells the Brain". 26 July 2006.
- PMID 16860742.
- ^ "Fujitsu Completes Construction of SEA-ME-WE 4 Submarine Cable Network". Fujitsu Press Releases. Fujitsu. 2005-12-13. Archived from the original on 2007-03-17. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- ^ "Samsung overtakes". 21 November 2007.
References
- International Electrotechnical Commission (2007). "Prefixes for binary multiples" (archived). Retrieved on 2007-05-06. - updated page Archived 2020-05-11 at the Wayback Machine lacks table but now references IEC 80000-13:2008 rather than IEC 60027-2.
- IEC 60027-2 "Letter symbols to be used in electrical technology – Part 2: Telecommunications and electronics+
- Donald Knuth: "What is a kilobyte?" Archived 2016-03-05 at the Wayback Machine