Also known as: Bit, Byte
A bit is the smallest unit of digital information — a single binary digit, either 0 or 1 — and a byte is a group of eight bits.12
Overview
Everything a computer stores or moves is encoded in bits, physically realized as a transistor switched on or off, a charge present or absent, a voltage high or low. Eight bits make a byte, which can represent 256 distinct values (0–255) — enough for one character of basic text. Larger quantities are counted in kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, and terabytes. Data rates are usually measured in bits per second (the unit of bandwidth), while storage sizes are usually in bytes — a common source of confusion.
Where it fits
Bits and bytes are the common currency of every other hardware idea: memory and storage are sized in bytes, logic gates operate on bits, and a CPU’s word width is a bit count. In SDR terms, the IQ samples GopherTrunk ingests are streams of bytes, and a decoded voice frame is ultimately a precise pattern of bits pulled out of the noise.