Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE Your notes

Computer Science
Data Storage & Compression
Contents
Units of Data Storage
Calculating File Sizes
Compression

© 2025 Save My Exams, Ltd. Get more and ace your exams at savemyexams.com 1
 Units of Data Storage
Your notes
Units of Data Storage
What are units of data storage?
A unit of data is a term given to describe different amounts of binary digits stored on a
digital device
These are the units you need to know for IGCSE:

Unit Symbol Value

Bit b 1 or 0

Nibble 4b

Byte B 8b

Kibibyte KiB 1,024 B (210)

Mebibyte MiB 1,024 KiB (220)

Gibibyte GiB 1.024 MiB (230)

Tebibyte TiB 1,024 GiB (240)

Megabyte vs Mebibyte
1 kibibyte (1KiB) = 1024 bytes (1024 B) - binary prefixes (to the power of 2)
1 kilobyte (1KB) = 1000 bytes (1000 B) - decimal prefixes (to the power of 10)

Converting between units

It is often a requirement of the exam to be able to convert between different units of
data, for example bytes to mebibytes (larger) or kibibytes to bytes (smaller)
This process involves division, moving up in size of unit and multiplication, moving
down in size of unit
When dealing with all units bigger than a byte we use multiples of 1024 (210)
For example, 2000 kibibytes in mebibytes would be 2000 / 1024 = 1.95 MiB and 2
tebibytes in gibibytes would be 2 * 1024 = 2048 GiB
When dealing with bits and bytes the same process is used with the value 8 as there are
8 bits in a byte

© 2025 Save My Exams, Ltd. Get more and ace your exams at savemyexams.com 2
For example, 24 bits in bytes would be 24 / 8 = 3 B and 10 bytes in bits would be 10 * 8 =
80 b
Your notes
Unit

Multiply by 8 ⇑ Bit Divide by 8 ⇓

Byte

Multiply by 1024 ⇑ Kibibyte Divide by 1024 ⇓

Mebibyte

Gibibyte

Tebibyte

© 2025 Save My Exams, Ltd. Get more and ace your exams at savemyexams.com 3
 Calculating File Sizes
Your notes
Calculating File Sizes
How do you calculate the size of a bitmap image?
Calculating the size of a bitmap image can be carried out with either of the following
formulas:
Resolution x colour depth
Image width x image height x colour depth

Example
Image Files

(Resolution) x (Colour Depth)

Size of bitmap image =

Resolution 250,000 Resolution = width x height

Colour Depth 24 bits (3 bytes) 24 bits = 3 bytes

250,000 x 24 = 6,000,000 bits

(bit to bytes) /8 750,000 bytes
(bytes to KiB) /1024 732 KiB

250000 x 3 = 750,000 bytes

(bytes to KiB) /1024 732 KiB

OR

Image Files

(Image width) x (Image height) x (Colour Depth)

Size of bitmap image =

Image width 500

© 2025 Save My Exams, Ltd. Get more and ace your exams at savemyexams.com 4
 Image height 500
Your notes
Colour Depth 24 bits 24 bits = 3 bytes

(500 x 500 x 24) = 6,000,000 bits

(bit to bytes) /8 750,000 bytes
(bytes to KiB) /1024 732 KiB

(500 x 500 x 3) = 750,000 bytes

(bytes to KiB) /1024 732 KiB

How do you calculate the size of a sound file?

Calculating the size of a sound file is carried out with the following formula:
Sample rate x duration x sample resolution

Example
Sound Files

(Sample Rate) x (Duration in seconds) x (Sample Resolution)

Size of sound file =

Sample rate 100 Samples per second

Duration 60 Seconds

Sample resolution 24 Number of bits stored per sample

100 x 60 x 24 = 144,000 bits

(bit to bytes) /8 18,000 bytes
(bytes to KiB) /1024 18 KiB

© 2025 Save My Exams, Ltd. Get more and ace your exams at savemyexams.com 5
 Compression
Your notes
The Need For Compression
What is compression?
Compression is reducing the size of a file so that it takes up less space on secondary
storage
The impact of compression is:
Less storage space required
Less bandwidth required
Shorter transmission time
Compression can be achieved using two methods, lossy and lossless

Lossy Compression
What is lossy compression?
Lossy compression is when data is lost in order to reduce the size on secondary storage
Lossy compression is irreversible
Lossy can greatly reduce the size of a file but at the expense of losing quality
Lossy is only suitable for data where reducing quality is acceptable, for example
images, video and sound
In photographs, lossy compression will try to group similar colours together, reducing
the amount of colours in the image without compromising the overall quality of the
image

© 2025 Save My Exams, Ltd. Get more and ace your exams at savemyexams.com 6
 Your notes

© 2025 Save My Exams, Ltd. Get more and ace your exams at savemyexams.com 7
 Your notes

In the images above, lossy compression is applied to a photograph and dramatically

reduces the file size
Data has been removed and the overall quality has been reduced, however it is
acceptable as it is difficult to visually see a difference
Lossy compressed photographs take up less storage space which means you can store
more and they are quicker to share across a network

Lossless Compression
What is lossless compression?
Lossless compression is when data is encoded in order to reduce the size on secondary
storage
Lossless compression is reversible, the file can be returned to its original state
Lossless can reduce the size of a file but not as dramatically as lossy
Lossless can be used on all data but is more suitable for data where a loss in quality is
unacceptable, for example documents
In a document, lossless compression algorithms such as run length encoding (RLE) can
be used to analyse the contents looking for patterns and repetition.

What is run length encoding?

Run length encoding (RLE) is a form of lossless data compression that condenses
identical elements into a single value with a count
For a text file, "AAAABBBCCDAA" is compressed to "4A3B2C1D2A"
The string has four 'A's, followed by three 'B's, two 'C's, one 'D', and two 'A's
RLE is used in bitmap images to compress sequences of the same colour

© 2025 Save My Exams, Ltd. Get more and ace your exams at savemyexams.com 8
 For example, a line in an image with 5 red pixels followed by 3 blue pixels could be
represented as "5R3B"
Lossless file formats Your notes

In the image above, lossless compression is automatically applied to document

formats such as DOCX and PDF with a different rate of success
When you open a lossless compressed document the decompression process
reverses the algorithms and returns the data back to its original state
Lossless compressed documents take up less storage space which means you can
store more and they are quicker to share across a network

Worked Example
An email is sent containing a sound file.
Lossy compression is used to compress the sound file.
Explain two reasons why using lossy compression is beneficial. [4]
How to answer this question
What are the differences between lossy and lossless?
Can you state two differences? [2 marks]
Can you say why each point is a benefit? [2 marks]
Answer
Lossy will decrease the file size [1]
...so it can sent via email quicker [1]
Lossy means data is lost [1]
...the difference is unlikely to be noticed by humans [1]

© 2025 Save My Exams, Ltd. Get more and ace your exams at savemyexams.com 9