Units of Information - Maple Programming Help

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Units of Information

Description

 • Amount of information is a non-SI base dimension. The unit of amount of information is the bit.
 • Units of information take IEC prefixes, not SI prefixes.  Thus, $1024$ bytes is a kibibyte, not a kilobyte.
 • Maple knows the units of information listed in the following table.

 Name Symbols Context Alternate Spellings Prefixes bit information * bits IEC crumb information * crumbs IEC nibble information * nibbles nybble nybbles IEC byte information * bytes IEC nickle information * nickles IEC word information * words IEC double_word information * double_words IEC gawble information * gawbles IEC block information * blocks IEC bit_per_second bps information * bits_per_second IEC

 An asterisk ( * ) indicates the default context, an at sign (@) indicates an abbreviation, and under the prefixes column, SI indicates that the unit takes all SI prefixes, IEC indicates that the unit takes IEC prefixes, and SI+ and SI- indicate that the unit takes only positive and negative SI prefixes, respectively.  Refer to a unit in the Units package by indexing the name or symbol with the context, for example, bit[information] or bps[information]; or, if the context is indicated as the default, by using only the unit name or symbol, for example, bit or bps.
 The units of information are defined as follows.
 A crumb is defined as $2$ bits.
 A nibble is defined as $4$ bits.
 A byte is defined as $8$ bits.
 A nickle is defined as $10$ bits.
 A word is defined as $16$ bits.
 A double word is defined as $32$ bits.
 A gawble is defined as $48$ bits.
 A block is defined as $4096$ bits.
 A bit_per_second is defined as a bit per second. (This is a unit with dimension $\frac{\mathrm{amount_of_information}}{\mathrm{time}}$.)

Examples

 > $\mathrm{convert}\left('\mathrm{byte}','\mathrm{dimensions}','\mathrm{base}'=\mathrm{true}\right)$
 ${\mathrm{amount_of_information}}$ (1)
 > $\mathrm{convert}\left(1,'\mathrm{units}','\mathrm{mebibytes}','\mathrm{bits}'\right)$
 ${8388608}$ (2)