DATA

The concept of data in the context of computing has its roots in the work of Claude Shannon, an
American mathematician known as the father of information theory. He ushered in binary digital
concepts based on applying two-value Boolean logic to electronic circuits. Binary digit formats underlie
the CPUs, semiconductor memories and disk drives, as well as many of the peripheral devices common
in computing today. Early computer input for both control and data took the form of punch cards,
followed by magnetic tape and the hard disk.

Early on, data's importance in business computing became apparent by the popularity of the terms
"data processing" and "electronic data processing," which, for a time, came to encompass the full gamut
of what is now known as information technology. Over the history of corporate computing,
specialization occurred, and a distinct data profession emerged along with growth of corporate data
processing.

How data is stored

Computers represent data, including video, images, sounds and text, as binary values using patterns of
just two numbers: 1 and 0. A bit is the smallest unit of data, and represents just a single value. A byte is
eight binary digits long. Storage and memory is measured in megabytes and gigabytes.

The units of data measurement continue to grow as the amount of data collected and stored grows. The
relatively new term "brontobyte," for example, is data storage that is equal to 10 to the 27th power
of bytes.