Units of information
capacity of information storage and communication
A unit of information is any unit of measure of digital data size. In digital computing, a unit of information is used to describe the capacity of a digital data storage device. In telecommunications, a unit of information is used to describe the throughput of a communication channel. In information theory, a unit of information is used to measure information contained in messages and the entropy of random variables.
Due to the need to work with data sizes that range from small to large, units of information cover a wide range of data sizes. Units are defined as multiples of a smaller unit except for the smallest unit which is based on convention and hardware design. Multiplier prefixes are used to describe relatively large sizes.
For binary hardware, the most common hardware today, the smallest unit is the bit, which represents a value that is one of two possibilities, typically shown as 0 and 1. The nibble, 4 bits, represents the value of a single hexadecimal digit. The byte (8 bits, 2 nibbles) is possibly the most commonly known and used base unit to describe data size.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Units of information” is capacity of information storage and communication. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Units, information and capacity, not as a finished interpretation.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3550873. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Units of information” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.