- 1 Bit = Binary Digit
- 8 Bits = 1 Byte
- 1024 Bytes = 1 Kilobyte
- 1024 Kilobytes = 1 Megabyte
- 1024 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte
- 1024 Gigabytes = 1 Terabyte
- 1024 Terabytes = 1 Petabyte
- 1024 Petabytes = 1 Exabyte
- 1024 Exabytes = 1 Zettabyte
- 1024 Zettabytes = 1 Yottabyte
- 1024 Yottabytes = 1 Brontobyte
- 1024 Brontobytes = 1 Geopbyte
Bit: A Bit is the smallest unit of
data that a computer uses. It can be used to represent two
states of information, such as Yes or No.
Byte: A Byte is equal to 8 Bits. A
Byte can represent 256 states of information, for example,
numbers or a combination of numbers and letters. 1 Byte
could be equal to one character. 10 Bytes could be equal
to a word. 100 Bytes would equal an average sentence.
Kilobyte: A Kilobyte is approximately
1,000 Bytes, actually 1,024 Bytes depending on which definition
is used. 1 Kilobyte would be equal to this paragraph you
are reading, whereas 100 Kilobytes would equal an entire
page.
Megabyte: A Megabyte is approximately
1,000 Kilobytes. In the early days of computing, a Megabyte
was considered to be a large amount of data. These days
with a 500 Gigabyte hard drive on a computer being common,
a Megabyte doesn't seem like much anymore. One of those
old 3-1/2 inch floppy disks can hold 1.44 Megabytes or the
equivalent of a small book. 100 Megabytes might hold a couple
volumes of Encyclopedias. 600 Megabytes is about the amount
of data that will fit on a CD-ROM disk.
Gigabyte: A Gigabyte is approximately
1,000 Megabytes. A Gigabyte is still a very common term used these
days when referring to disk space or drive storage. 1 Gigabyte
of data is almost twice the amount of data that a CD-ROM
can hold. But it's about one thousand times the capacity
of a 3-1/2 floppy disk. 1 Gigabyte could hold the contents
of about 10 yards of books on a shelf. 100 Gigabytes could
hold the entire library floor of academic journals.
Terabyte: A Terabyte is
approximately one trillion bytes, or 1,000 Gigabytes. There was a time
that I never thought I would see a 1 Terabyte hard drive, now one and
two terabyte drives are the normal specs for many new computers. To
put it in some perspective, a Terabyte could hold about 3.6 million 300
Kilobyte images or maybe about 300 hours of good quality video. A
Terabyte could hold 1,000 copies of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Ten
Terabytes could hold the printed collection of the Library of Congress.
That's a lot of data.
Petabyte: A Petabyte is approximately
1,000 Terabytes or one million Gigabytes. It's hard to visualize
what a Petabyte could hold. 1 Petabyte could hold approximately
20 million 4-door filing cabinets full of text. It could
hold 500 billion pages of standard printed text. It would
take about 500 million floppy disks to store the same amount
of data.
Exabyte: An Exabyte is approximately
1,000 Petabytes. Another way to look at it is that an Exabyte
is approximately one quintillion bytes or one billion Gigabytes.
There is not much to compare an Exabyte to. It has been
said that 5 Exabytes would be equal to all of the words
ever spoken by mankind.
Zettabyte: A Zettabyte is approximately
1,000 Exabytes. There is nothing to compare a Zettabyte
to but to say that it would take a whole lot of ones and
zeroes to fill it up.
Yottabyte: A Yottabyte is approximately
1,000 Zettabytes. It would take approximately 11 trillion years to download a Yottabyte file from
the Internet using high-power broadband. You can compare it to the World Wide
Web as the entire Internet almost takes up about a Yottabyte.
Brontobyte: A Brontobyte is (you guessed
it) approximately 1,000 Yottabytes. The only thing there
is to say about a Brontobyte is that it is a 1 followed
by 27 zeroes!
Geopbyte: A
Geopbyte is about 1000 Brontobytes! Not sure why this term was created.
I'm doubting that anyone alive today will ever see a Geopbyte hard
drive. One way of looking at a geopbyte is 15267 6504600 2283229 4012496 7031205 376 bytes!
