Computers and software use a great deal of numbers to identify their capabilities. You don’t have to be an Einstein to understand these math concepts. Just having a basic understanding will allow you to use your computer more effectively. Refer to these numbers when creating backups, copying files to floppy or zip disks and when purchasing and installing new software. These numbers may come in handy.

The capacity numbers refer to the storage capacity of your hard disk, floppy disk, zip disk, tape drive and CD-ROM. Each device has a maximum capacity measured in terms of bytes.

• A byte is a unit of measure
• A kilobyte abbreviated (KB) is 1024 bytes
• A megabyte abbreviated (MB) is 1024 kilobytes or 1,048,576 bytes
• A gigabyte abbreviated (GB) is 1024 megabytes or 1,073,741,824 bytes

While we assume a megabyte is 1 million bytes, in truth it is actually 1,048,576 bytes

A Gigabyte would be 100 million bytes, in truth it is 1,073,741,824

A floppy disk can save up to 1.44 MB or 144,000 bytes

A zip disk can save up to 100 MB or 250 MB depending on the model of zip drive and disk (the newest model saves 250 MB)

A CD-ROM can save or contain 650 MB

Hard Drives are now measured in gigabytes (GB) with sizes ranging from 1 GB on up to 20 or 50 GB.

Tape drive cartridges vary in capacity depending on the make and model of the drive and tape used. These currently range from 800 MB on up to 50 GB. Older units handled smaller capacities.

The first version of Windows 95 took 20 disks to install. That is 20 1.44 MB floppy disks.

Windows 98 is so large that it only comes on CD-ROM of 650-MB total

Office Suites often come on 1 or 2 CD-ROMS

New software installations should indicate the capacity needed to install the program. Does your system have enough capacity?

Computer processing speed is measured in terms of megahertz (MHz) for a particular CPU chip.

CPU speeds range 100 MHz on up to 2000 MHz and higher.

Older computers may have speeds of less than 100

There are various rating systems used to try to sort out overall speed. Unfortunately, different combinations of different chips and other components make it difficult to just say that a 500 MHz computer is 5 times faster than one that is rated at 100 MHz.

The speed of your Internet connection is now the hot topic in the industry. Faster is better. Connection speed is measured in terms of modem speed in baud rates

28000, 33600, 56000 or 28k, 33k or 56k are common speed ratings for dial up analog modems. DSL, cable and ISDN connections are much faster.