How long is 256 KB in seconds?

When a computer performs calculations, it does so using bits: the 1's and 0's, which signify a voltage level on a transistor. A "1" means a voltage on the transistor, a "0" means no voltage. These bits, when grouped together, can be used to signify values. For instance, the value of 00000001 is "1", the value of "180" is 10110100. Letters can be encoded into these collections of bits: "A" encoded is written as 01000001. B through Z also each have their own eight digit code.

As it turns out, to encode the entire alphabet and all numbers, eight bits are needed. This collection of eight bits came to be known as a byte. Bytes eventually came to be accepted as a basic unit of information in computers, and so memory sizes were measured in bytes. A kilobyte is a thousand bytes or eight thousand bits. A megabyte is a million bytes, or eight million bits. A gigabyte is a billion bytes or eight billion bits. Now hard drives are measured in terabytes, which would be 1,000,000,000,000 bytes or 8,000,000,000 bits.

Measuring the speed of a kilobyte depends on the processor. If it were a 256 kbps (256 kilobyte per second) processor, it would take exactly one second. If it were a 1 kbps (1 kilobyte per second) processor, it would take 256 seconds. Most computers today operate in the Gbps range: billions of processes per second. To calculate how long it would take on a given processor, use the following formula:

Time = (number of kilobytes) / (processor speed)

For example: an 8 MHz processor processing 256 kilobytes of information would look like this:

Time = (256,000)/(8,000,000) = 0.000032 seconds

That is 32 microseconds, or 32 millionths of a second. It only gets faster with a more powerful processor!