Bytes to Kibibits (B to Kibit)
1 byte equals 0.0078125 kibibits exactly.
How to convert bytes to kibibits
To convert bytes to kibibits, multiply the number of bytes by 0.0078125. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply kibibits by 128.
kibibits = bytes × 0.0078125
Example: 10 bytes = 0.078125 kibibits.
Decimal prefixes (kB, MB, GB) are powers of 1,000; binary prefixes (KiB, MiB, GiB) are powers of 1,024. Storage makers use decimal; Windows reports binary but labels it GB.
About these units
Byte (B)
Eight bits. The basic addressable unit of memory and storage.
Werner Buchholz coined the word byte in June 1956 while working on the IBM Stretch computer; the earliest supporting document is dated 11 June 1956. He respelled bite on purpose, in his words to avoid accidental mutation to bit. At that stage a byte was any group of one to six bits, and a move to eight bits was considered in August 1956 and built into the design soon after. Louis Dooley later claimed he had coined the term around 1956 or 1957 on the SAGE project at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, where it meant groups of four bits, but Fred Brooks credited Buchholz.
IBM's System/360 adopted the eight-bit byte, and its success made that size the standard. The symbol is a capital B, and the unambiguous alternative is octet, a word used in protocol standards such as RFC 791. A byte can hold 256 distinct values, enough for a letter of the alphabet in a simple character set, which is why files and memory addresses are counted in bytes.
The byte is the reference unit for digital storage on this site.
Sources: Wikipedia: Byte; Wikipedia: Binary prefix
Kibibit (Kibit)
Exactly 1,024 bits.
Before 1999, a kilobit was often loosely taken to mean 1,024 bits as well as 1,000, and the IEC prefix kibi settled the matter. A kibibit (Kibit) is exactly 2^10 bits, which is 1,024 bits or 128 bytes. The IEC adopted the prefix in December 1998, and the BIPM's vocabulary of metrology notes that 1 kilobit should not be used to mean 1,024 bits.
The name starts with the first two letters of kilo and adds bi for binary, and the symbol writes the K as a capital to match the other binary prefixes. The difference from the decimal kilobit is 2.4 percent, the smallest of any pair.
The unit is a small one, equal to 128 bytes, and appears mainly where an exact binary bit count has to be stated without the ambiguity of kilobit.
1 kibibit = 128 bytes (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Binary prefix; NIST: Prefixes for binary multiples; Wikipedia: Bit
Related conversions
- Kibibits to bytes (reverse)
- Bytes to kilobytes
- Bytes to megabytes
- Bytes to gigabytes
- Bytes to terabytes
- Bytes to bits
- Bytes to petabytes
- Bytes to kibibytes
- Bytes to mebibytes
- Bytes to gibibytes
- Bytes to tebibytes
- Bytes to kilobits
- Bytes to megabits
- Kilobytes to kibibits
- Megabytes to kibibits
- Gigabytes to kibibits
- Terabytes to kibibits
See all digital storage units.