Orders of magnitude (bit rate)

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An order of magnitude is generally a factor of ten. A quantity growing by four orders of magnitude implies it has grown by a factor of 10000 or 104. However, because computers are binary, orders of magnitude are sometimes given as powers of two.

This article presents a list of multiples, sorted by orders of magnitude, for bit rates measured in bits per second. Since some bit rates may measured in other quantities of data or time (like MB/s), information to assist with converting to and from these formats is provided. This article assumes the following:

Accordingly:

Factor (bit/s) SI prefix ValueFieldItem
10−25.0×10−2 bit/sText data Project ELF bit rate for transmitting 3-letter codes to US nuclear submarines [1] [2]
100bit/s
1015.0×101 bit/sPositioning systemBit rate for transmissions from GPS satellites [3]
5.6×101 bit/sText dataBit rate for a skilled operator in Morse code [4]
103kbit/s4×103 bit/sAudio dataMinimum achieved for encoding recognizable speech (using special-purpose speech codecs)
8×103 bit/sAudio dataLow bit rate telephone quality
104
3.2×104 bit/sAudio data MW quality and ADPCM voice in telephony, doubling the capacity of a 30 chan link to 60 ch.
5.6×104 bit/sNetworking 56kbit modem  – 56 kbit/s  – 56,000 bit/s
6.4×104 bit/sNetworking64 kbit/s in an ISDN B channel or best quality, uncompressed telephone line.
1051.28×105 bit/sAudio data128 kbit/s MP3  – 128,000 bit/s
1.92×105 bit/sAudio dataNearly CD quality[ citation needed ] for a file compressed in the MP3 format
106Mbit/s1.4112×106 bit/sAudio data CD audio (uncompressed, 16 bit samples × 44.1 kHz × 2 channels)
1.536×106 bit/sNetworking24 channels of telephone in the US, or a good VTC T1.
2×106 bit/sVideo data30 channels of telephone audio or a Video Tele-Conference at VHS quality
8×106 bit/sVideo data DVD quality
1071×107 bit/sNetworkingClassic Ethernet
1×107 bit/sBiologyResearch suggests that the human retina transmits data to the brain at the rate of ca. 107 bit/sec [5] [6]
2.7×107 bit/sVideo data HDTV quality
1081×108 bit/sNetworking Fast Ethernet
4.8×108 bit/sComputer data interfaces USB 2.0 High-Speed (interface signalling rate)
7.86×108 bit/sComputer data interfaces FireWire IEEE 1394b-2002 S800
9.5×108 bit/sComputer storage Harddrive read, Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103Uj [7]
109Gbit/s1×109 bit/sNetworking Gigabit Ethernet
1.067×109 bit/sComputer data interfaces Parallel ATA UDMA 6; conventional PCI 32 bit 33 MHz – 133 MB/s
1.244×109 bit/sNetworking OC-24, a 1.244 Gbit/s SONET data channel
1.5×109 bit/sComputer data interfaces SATA 1.5Gbit/s – First generation (interface signaling rate)
3×109 bit/sComputer data interfaces SATA 3Gbit/s – Second generation (interface signaling rate)
5×109 bit/sComputer data interfaces USB 3.0 SuperSpeed (interface signaling rate)
6×109 bit/sComputer data interfaces SATA 6Gbit/s – Third generation (interface signaling rate)
8.533×109 bit/sComputer data interfaces PCI-X 64 bit 133 MHz – 1,067 MB/s
9.953×109 bit/sNetworking OC-192, a 9.953 Gbit/s SONET data channel
10101.0×1010 bit/sComputer data interfaces Thunderbolt
1.0×1010 bit/sNetworking 10 Gigabit Ethernet
1.0×1010 bit/sComputer data interfaces USB 3.1 SuperSpeed 10 Gbit/s (interface signaling rate)
3.9813×1010 bit/sNetworking OC-768, a 39.813 Gbit/s SONET data channel, the fastest in current use
4.0×1010 bit/sNetworking 40 Gigabit Ethernet
8×1010 bit/sComputer data interfaces PCI Express 2.0 ×16 (interface signaling rate)
9.6×1010 bit/sComputer data interfaces InfiniBand 12X QDR
10111.0×1011 bit/sNetworking 100 Gigabit Ethernet
1.28×1011 bit/sComputer data interfaces PCI Express 3.0 ×16 (interface signaling rate)
2.0×1011 bit/sNetworking 200 Gigabit Ethernet
2.56×1011 bit/sComputer data interfaces PCI Express 4.0 ×16 (interface signaling rate)
4.0×1011 bit/sNetworking 400 Gigabit Ethernet
5.12×1011 bit/sComputer data interfaces PCI Express 5.0 ×16 (interface signaling rate)
1012Tbit/s1.28×1012 bit/sNetworking SEA-ME-WE 4 submarine communications cable  – 1.28 terabits per second [8]
3.84×1012 bit/sNetworking I-ME-WE submarine communications cable  – design capacity of 3.84 terabits per second [9]
10142.45×1014 bit/sNetworkingProjected average global internet traffic in 2015 according to Cisco's 2011 VNI IP traffic forecast [10] [11]
1015Pbit/s1.050×1015 bit/sNetworkingData rate over a 14 transmission core optical fiber developed by NEC and Corning researchers. [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented as either "1" or "0", but other representations such as true/false, yes/no, on/off, or +/− are also commonly used.

The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit of memory in many computer architectures. To disambiguate arbitrarily sized bytes from the common 8-bit definition, network protocol documents such as The Internet Protocol refer to an 8-bit byte as an octet. Those bits in an octet are usually counted with numbering from 0 to 7 or 7 to 0 depending on the bit endianness. The first bit is number 0, making the eighth bit number 7.

A binary prefix is a unit prefix for multiples of units in data processing, data transmission, and digital information, principally in association with the bit and the byte, to indicate multiplication by a power of 2. As shown in the table to the right there are two sets of symbols for binary prefixes, one set established by International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and several other standards and trade organizations using two letter symbols, e.g. Mi indicating 1,048,576 with a second set established by semiconductor industry convention using one letter symbols, e.g., M also indicating 1,048,576.

The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one gigabyte is one billion bytes. The unit symbol for the gigabyte is GB.

The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information.

The kilobit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information or computer storage. The prefix kilo- (symbol k) is defined in the International System of Units (SI) as a multiplier of 103 (1 thousand), and therefore,

The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Its recommended unit symbol is MB. The unit prefix mega is a multiplier of 1000000 (106) in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one megabyte is one million bytes of information. This definition has been incorporated into the International System of Quantities.

In telecommunications and computing, bit rate is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time.

The megabit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information. The prefix mega (symbol M) is defined in the International System of Units (SI) as a multiplier of 106 (1 million), and therefore

An order of magnitude is usually a factor of ten. Thus, four orders of magnitude is a factor of 10,000 or 104.

The kibibit is a multiple of the bit, a unit of digital information storage, using the standard binary prefix kibi, which has the symbol Ki, meaning 210. The unit symbol of the kibibit is Kibit.

Throughput of a network can be measured using various tools available on different platforms. This page explains the theory behind what these tools set out to measure and the issues regarding these measurements.

In computing, a word is the natural unit of data used by a particular processor design. A word is a fixed-sized datum handled as a unit by the instruction set or the hardware of the processor. The number of bits or digits in a word is an important characteristic of any specific processor design or computer architecture.

A unit prefix is a specifier or mnemonic that is prepended to units of measurement to indicate multiples or fractions of the units. Units of various sizes are commonly formed by the use of such prefixes. The prefixes of the metric system, such as kilo and milli, represent multiplication by powers of ten. In information technology it is common to use binary prefixes, which are based on powers of two. Historically, many prefixes have been used or proposed by various sources, but only a narrow set has been recognised by standards organisations.

IEEE 1541-2002 is a standard issued in 2002 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) concerning the use of prefixes for binary multiples of units of measurement related to digital electronics and computing.

ISO 80000 or IEC 80000 is an international standard introducing the International System of Quantities (ISQ). It was developed and promulgated jointly by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

The JEDEC memory standards are the specifications for semiconductor memory circuits and similar storage devices promulgated by the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) Solid State Technology Association, a semiconductor trade and engineering standardization organization.

In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate), characters or symbols (baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are multiples of bits per second (bit/s) and bytes per second (B/s). For example, the data rates of modern residential high-speed Internet connections are commonly expressed in megabits per second (Mbit/s).

This timeline of binary prefixes lists events in the history of the evolution, development, and use of units of measure for information, the bit and the byte, which are germane to the definition of the binary prefixes by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 1998.

References

  1. ↑ Heppenheimer, T. A. (April 1987). "Signaling Subs". Popular Science. New York. 230 (4): 44–48.
  2. ↑ Source specifies a transmission rate of 3 characters in 5 minutes. An uppercase character can be represented with 5 bits.
  3. ↑ "The Promising Marriage of Wireless and GPS Technologies" (PDF). U-blox. November 2009. p. 7. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  4. ↑ WPM, or Words Per Minute, is the number of times the word "PARIS" is transferred per minute. Strictly speaking the code is quinary, accounting inter-element, inter-letter, and inter-word gaps, yielding 50 binary elements (bits) per one word. Therefore 40 wpm is 2000 bits/min or 55.6 bit/s. Counting characters, including inter-word gaps, gives six characters per word or 240 characters per minute, and finally four characters per second.
  5. ↑ Penn researchers calculate how much the eye tells the brain, 26 July 2006
  6. ↑ How Much the Eye Tells the Brain
  7. ↑ "Samsung overtakes".
  8. ↑ "Fujitsu Completes Construction of SEA-ME-WE 4 Submarine Cable Network". Fujitsu Press Releases. Fujitsu. 13 December 2005. Archived from the original on 17 March 2007. Retrieved 31 January 2008.
  9. ↑ "Imewe Picks Alcatel-Lucent". LR Mobile News. 11 February 2008. Archived from the original on 23 May 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
  10. ↑ "Cisco: The Internet Is, Like, Really Big, and Getting Bigger". Dow Jones & Company. 1 June 2011. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  11. ↑ Calculated based on Cisco's figure of 966 exabytes per year, using the astronomical definition of a Julian year (365.25 days per year, 86,400 seconds per day).
  12. ↑ "NEC, Corning claim petabit transmission over a single optical fiber". PennWell. 17 January 2013. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
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