Data Storage and Compression

This set of flashcards covers key vocabulary related to data storage units, compression methods, and important calculations in computer science.

Bit

A basic unit of data in computing, represented as a 1 or 0.

Nibble

A unit of data that contains 4 bits.

Byte

A unit of data that consists of 8 bits.

Kibibyte (KiB)

A unit of data equal to 1024 bytes.

Mebibyte (MiB)

A unit of data equal to 1,048,576 bytes.

Gibibyte (GiB)

A unit of data equal to 1,073,741,824 bytes.

Tebibyte (TiB)

A unit of data equal to 1,099,511,627,776 bytes.

Kilobyte (KB)

A unit of data equal to 1000 bytes.

Lossy Compression

A type of data compression where some data is lost to reduce file size; irreversible.

Lossless Compression

A type of data compression that reduces file size without losing data; reversible.

Run Length Encoding (RLE)

A lossless data compression method that replaces consecutive identical elements with a value and a count.

Resolution

The amount of detail in an image, typically measured in width x height in pixels.

Colour Depth

The number of bits used to represent the color of a single pixel; commonly 24 bits.

Sample Rate

The number of samples of audio carried per second, measured in Hz.

Compression

The process of reducing the size of a file to occupy less storage space.