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

class="wikitable sortable"

!Factor (bit/s)

!SI prefix

!Value

!Field

!Item

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| 10⁻²

|5.0×10⁻² bit/s

|Text data

|Project ELF bit rate for transmitting 3-letter codes to US nuclear submarines {{cite journal

| last = Heppenheimer

| first = T. A.

| title = Signaling Subs

| journal = Popular Science

| volume = 230

| issue = 4

| pages = 44–48

| location = New York

| date = April 1987

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=IAEAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA44}}Source specifies a transmission rate of 3 characters in 5 minutes. An uppercase character can be represented with 5 bits.

---

| 10⁰

| bit/s

---

| rowspan=2 | 10¹

| rowspan=2 |

|5.0×10¹ bit/s

|Positioning system

|Bit rate for transmissions from GPS satellites {{cite web |url=http://www.insidegnss.com/special/elib/u-blox_Whitepaper-The_Promising_Marriage_of_Wireless_and_GPS_Technologies.pdf|title=The Promising Marriage of Wireless and GPS Technologies |access-date=5 August 2013|date=November 2009|publisher=U-blox|page=7}}

---

|5.6×10¹ bit/s

|Text data

|Bit 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.

---

| rowspan="2" | 10³

| rowspan="2" | kbit/s

|4×10³ bit/s

|Audio data

|Minimum achieved for encoding recognizable speech (using special-purpose speech codecs)

---

|8×10³ bit/s

|Audio data

|Low bit rate telephone quality

---

| rowspan="4" | 10⁴

| rowspan="4" |

---

|3.2×10⁴ bit/s

|Audio data

|MW quality and ADPCM voice in telephony, doubling the capacity of a 30 chan link to 60 ch.

5.6×10⁴ bit/s

|Networking

|56kbit modem – 56 kbit/s – 56,000 bit/s

---

|6.4×10⁴ bit/s

|Networking

|64 kbit/s in an ISDN B channel or best quality, uncompressed telephone line.

---

| rowspan=2 | 10⁵

| rowspan=2 |

|1.28×10⁵ bit/s

|Audio data

|128 kbit/s MP3 – 128,000 bit/s

---

|1.92×10⁵ bit/s

|Audio data

|Nearly CD quality{{citation needed|date=December 2012}} for a file compressed in the MP3 format

---

| rowspan=4 | 10⁶

| rowspan=4 | Mbit/s

|1.4112×10⁶ bit/s

|Audio data

|CD audio (uncompressed, 16 bit samples × 44.1 kHz × 2 channels)

---

|1.536×10⁶ bit/s

|Networking

|24 channels of telephone in the US, or a good VTC T1.

---

|2×10⁶ bit/s

|Video data

|30 channels of telephone audio or a Video Tele-Conference at VHS quality

---

|8×10⁶ bit/s

|Video data

|DVD quality

---

| rowspan=3 | 10⁷

| rowspan=3 |

|1×10⁷ bit/s

|Networking

|Classic Ethernet

---

|1×10⁷ bit/s

|Biology

|Research suggests that the human retina transmits data to the brain at the rate of ca. 10⁷ bit/sec[http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-07/uops-prc072606.php Penn researchers calculate how much the eye tells the brain], 26 July 2006[http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2806%2901639-3 How Much the Eye Tells the Brain]

---

|2.7×10⁷ bit/s

|Video data

|HDTV quality

---

| rowspan=4 |10⁸

| rowspan=4 |

|1×10⁸ bit/s

|Networking

|Fast Ethernet

---

|4.8×10⁸ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|USB 2.0 High-Speed (interface signalling rate)

---

|7.86×10⁸ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|FireWire IEEE 1394b-2002 S800

---

|9.5×10⁸ bit/s

|Computer storage

|Harddrive read, Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103Uj {{cite web|url=http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-overtakes-a-bang,1730-9.html|title=Samsung overtakes}}

---

| rowspan=12 | 10⁹

| rowspan=12 | Gbit/s

|1×10⁹ bit/s

|Networking

|Gigabit Ethernet

---

|1.067×10⁹ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|Parallel ATA UDMA 6; conventional PCI 32 bit 33 MHz – 133 MB/s

---

|1.244×10⁹ bit/s

|Networking

|OC-24, a 1.244 Gbit/s SONET data channel

---

|1.5×10⁹ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|SATA 1.5 Gbit/s – First generation (interface signaling rate)

---

|2.5×10⁹ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|PCI Express 1.0 ×1 (interface signaling rate)

---

|3×10⁹ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|SATA 3Gbit/s – Second generation (interface signaling rate)

---

|5×10⁹ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|USB 3.0 SuperSpeed (interface signaling rate)

---

|5×10⁹ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|PCI Express 2.0 ×1 (interface signaling rate)

---

|6×10⁹ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|SATA 6Gbit/s – Third generation (interface signaling rate)

---

|8×10⁹ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|PCI Express 3.0 ×1 (interface signaling rate)

---

|8.533×10⁹ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|PCI-X 64 bit 133 MHz – 1,067 MB/s

---

|9.953×10⁹ bit/s

|Networking

|OC-192, a 9.953 Gbit/s SONET data channel

---

| rowspan=10 | 10¹⁰

| rowspan=10 |

|1.0×10¹⁰ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|Thunderbolt

---

|1.0×10¹⁰ bit/s

|Networking

|10 Gigabit Ethernet

1.0×10¹⁰ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|USB 3.1 SuperSpeed 10 Gbit/s (interface signaling rate)

---

|1.6×10¹⁰ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|PCI Express 4.0 ×1 (interface signaling rate)

---

|3.2×10¹⁰ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|PCI Express 5.0 ×1 (interface signaling rate)

---

|3.9813×10¹⁰ bit/s

|Networking

|OC-768, a 39.813 Gbit/s SONET data channel, the fastest in current use

---

|4.0×10¹⁰ bit/s

|Networking

|40 Gigabit Ethernet

---

|4.0×10¹⁰ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|PCI Express 1.0 ×16 (interface signaling rate)

---

|8.0×10¹⁰ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|PCI Express 2.0 ×16 (interface signaling rate)

---

|9.6×10¹⁰ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|InfiniBand 12X QDR

---

| rowspan=6 | 10¹¹

| rowspan=6 |

|1.0×10¹¹ bit/s

|Networking

|100 Gigabit Ethernet

---

|1.28×10¹¹ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|PCI Express 3.0 ×16 (interface signaling rate)

---

|2.0×10¹¹ bit/s

|Networking

|200 Gigabit Ethernet

---

|2.56×10¹¹ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|PCI Express 4.0 ×16 (interface signaling rate)

---

|4.0×10¹¹ bit/s

|Networking

|400 Gigabit Ethernet

---

|5.12×10¹¹ bit/s

|Computer data interfaces

|PCI Express 5.0 ×16 (interface signaling rate)

---

| rowspan=2 | 10¹²

| rowspan=2 | Tbit/s

|1.28×10¹² bit/s

|Networking

|SEA-ME-WE 4 submarine communications cable – 1.28 terabits per second {{cite web |url=http://www.fujitsu.com/global/news/pr/archives/month/2005/20051213-01.html|title=Fujitsu Completes Construction of SEA-ME-WE 4 Submarine Cable Network|access-date=31 January 2008|date=13 December 2005|work=Fujitsu Press Releases|publisher=Fujitsu|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070317223056/http://www.fujitsu.com/global/news/pr/archives/month/2005/20051213-01.html|archive-date=17 March 2007}}

---

|3.84×10¹² bit/s

|Networking

|I-ME-WE submarine communications cable – design capacity of 3.84 terabits per second {{ cite news | url = http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=145547 | title = Imewe Picks Alcatel-Lucent | publisher = LR Mobile News | access-date = 4 August 2013 | date = 11 February 2008 | url-status = dead | archive-url = http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160523184906/http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=145547 | archive-date = 23 May 2016 | df = dmy-all }}

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| 10¹⁴

|2.45×10¹⁴ bit/s

|Networking

|Projected average global internet traffic in 2015 according to Cisco's 2011 VNI IP traffic forecast {{ cite news | url = http://allthingsd.com/20110601/cisco-the-internet-is-like-really-big-and-getting-bigger/ | title = Cisco: The Internet Is, Like, Really Big, and Getting Bigger | publisher = Dow Jones & Company | access-date = 5 August 2013 | date = 1 June 2011 }}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).

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|10¹⁵

|Pbit/s

|1.050×10¹⁵ bit/s

|Networking

|Data rate over a 14 transmission core optical fiber developed by NEC and Corning researchers.{{ cite news | url = http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2013/01/nec--corning-claim-petabit-transmission-over-a-single-optical-fi.html | title = NEC, Corning claim petabit transmission over a single optical fiber | publisher = PennWell | access-date = 4 August 2013 | date = 17 January 2013 }}

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References

Bit rate

Orders of magnitude (bit rate)

See also

References