Orders of magnitude (bit rate)

An order of magnitude is generally a factor of ten. A quantity growing by four orders of magnitude implies it has grown by a factor of 10000 or 104. However, because computers are binary, orders of magnitude are sometimes given as powers of two.

This article presents a list of multiples, sorted by orders of magnitude, for bit rates measured in bits per second. Since some bit rates may measured in other quantities of data or time (like MB/s), information to assist with converting to and from these formats is provided. This article assumes the following: A group of 8 bits (8 bit) constitutes one byte (1 B). The byte is the most common unit of measurement of information (megabyte, mebibyte, gigabyte, gibibyte, etc.). The decimal SI prefixes kilo, mega etc., are powers of 10. The power of two equivalents are the binary prefixes kibi, mebi, etc.

Accordingly: 1 kB (kilobyte) = 1000 bytes = 8000 bits 1 KiB (kibibyte) = 210 bytes = 1024 bytes = 8192 bits 1 kbit (kilobit) = 125 bytes = 1000 bits 1 Kibit (kibibit) = 210 bits = 1024 bits = 128 bytes

Factor (bit/s)SI prefixValueFieldItem 10−25.0×10−2 bit/sText dataProject ELF bit rate for transmitting 3-letter codes to US nuclear submarines Source specifies a transmission rate of 3 characters in 5 minutes. An uppercase character can be represented with 5 bits. 100 bit/s 1015.0×101 bit/sPositioning systemBit rate for transmissions from GPS satellites 5.6×101 bit/sText dataBit rate for a skilled operator in Morse codeWPM, or Words Per Minute, is the number of times the word "PARIS" is transferred per minute. Strictly speaking the code is quinary, accounting inter-element, inter-letter, and inter-word gaps, yielding 50 binary elements (bits) per one word. Therefore 40 wpm is 2000 bits/min or 55.6 bit/s. Counting characters, including inter-word gaps, gives six characters per word or 240 characters per minute, and finally four characters per second. 103 kbit/s4×103 bit/sAudio dataMinimum achieved for encoding recognizable speech (using special-purpose speech codecs)8×103 bit/sAudio dataLow bit rate telephone quality 1043.2×104 bit/sAudio dataMW quality and ADPCM voice in telephony, doubling the capacity of a 30 channel link to 60 channels5.6×104 bit/sNetworking56 kbit/s modem – 56 kbit/s – 56,000 bit/s6.4×104 bit/sNetworking64 kbit/s in an ISDN B channel or best quality, uncompressed telephone line. 105 1.28×105 bit/sAudio data128 kbit/s MP3 – 128,000 bit/s1.92×105 bit/sAudio dataNearly CD quality for a file compressed in the MP3 format 106 Mbit/s1.4112×106 bit/sAudio dataCD audio (uncompressed, 16 bit samples × 44.1 kHz × 2 channels)1.536×106 bit/sNetworking24 channels of telephone in the US, or a good VTC T1.2×106 bit/sVideo data30 channels of telephone audio or a Video Tele-Conference at VHS quality8×106 bit/sVideo dataDVD quality 107 1×107 bit/sNetworkingClassic Ethernet1×107 bit/sBiologyHuman retina transmits data to the brain at the rate of approximately 107 bit/sPenn researchers calculate how much the eye tells the brain, 26 July 2006How Much the Eye Tells the Brain2.7×107 bit/sVideo dataHDTV quality1081×108 bit/sNetworkingFast Ethernet4.8×108 bit/sComputer data interfacesUSB 2.0 High-Speed (interface signalling rate)7.86×108 bit/sComputer data interfacesFireWire IEEE 1394b-2002 S8009.5×108 bit/sComputer storageHarddrive read, Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103Uj 109 Gbit/s1×109 bit/sNetworkingGigabit Ethernet1.067×109 bit/sComputer data interfacesParallel ATA UDMA 6; conventional PCI 32 bit 33 MHz – 133 MB/s1.244×109 bit/sNetworkingOC-24, a 1.244 Gbit/s SONET data channel1.5×109 bit/sComputer data interfacesSATA 1.5 Gbit/s – First generation (interface signaling rate)2.5×109 bit/sComputer data interfacesPCI Express 1.0 ×1 (interface signaling rate)3×109 bit/sComputer data interfacesSATA 3Gbit/s – Second generation (interface signaling rate)5×109 bit/sComputer data interfacesUSB 3.0 SuperSpeed (interface signaling rate)5×109 bit/sComputer data interfacesPCI Express 2.0 ×1 (interface signaling rate)6×109 bit/sComputer data interfacesSATA 6Gbit/s – Third generation (interface signaling rate)8×109 bit/sComputer data interfacesPCI Express 3.0 ×1 (interface signaling rate)8.533×109 bit/sComputer data interfacesPCI-X 64 bit 133 MHz – 1,067 MB/s9.953×109 bit/sNetworkingOC-192, a 9.953 Gbit/s SONET data channel 1010 1.0×1010 bit/sComputer data interfacesThunderbolt1.0×1010 bit/sNetworking10 Gigabit Ethernet1.0×1010 bit/sComputer data interfacesUSB 3.1 SuperSpeed 10 Gbit/s (interface signaling rate)1.6×1010 bit/sComputer data interfacesPCI Express 4.0 ×1 (interface signaling rate)3.2×1010 bit/sComputer data interfacesPCI Express 5.0 ×1 (interface signaling rate)3.9813×1010 bit/sNetworkingOC-768, a 39.813 Gbit/s SONET data channel, the fastest in current use4.0×1010 bit/sNetworking40 Gigabit Ethernet4.0×1010 bit/sComputer data interfacesPCI Express 1.0 ×16 (interface signaling rate)8.0×1010 bit/sComputer data interfacesPCI Express 2.0 ×16 (interface signaling rate)9.6×1010 bit/sComputer data interfacesInfiniBand 12X QDR 1011 1.0×1011 bit/sNetworking100 Gigabit Ethernet1.28×1011 bit/sComputer data interfacesPCI Express 3.0 ×16 (interface signaling rate)2.0×1011 bit/sNetworking200 Gigabit Ethernet2.56×1011 bit/sComputer data interfacesPCI Express 4.0 ×16 (interface signaling rate)4.0×1011 bit/sNetworking400 Gigabit Ethernet5.12×1011 bit/sComputer data interfacesPCI Express 5.0 ×16 (interface signaling rate) 1012 Tbit/s1.28×1012 bit/sNetworkingSEA-ME-WE 4 submarine communications cable – 1.28 terabits per second 3.84×1012 bit/sNetworkingI-ME-WE submarine communications cable – design capacity of 3.84 terabits per second 10142.45×1014 bit/sNetworkingProjected average global internet traffic in 2015 according to Cisco's 2011 VNI IP traffic forecast Calculated based on Cisco's figure of 966 exabytes per year, using the astronomical definition of a Julian year (365.25 days per year, 86,400 seconds per day).1015Pbit/s1.050×1015 bit/sNetworkingData rate over a 14 transmission core optical fiber developed by NEC and Corning researchers.

See also Data-rate units List of interface bit rates Spectral efficiency Orders of magnitude (data) Orders of magnitude (time)

References