The discrepancy between base-10 and base-2 measurements became more distinct as vendors began to manufacture data storage media with more capacity.Ī terabyte ( TB) is equal to approximately 1 trillion bytes, or 1,024 GB. Computers typically use the base-2, or binary, form of measurement. This is the standard most data storage manufacturers and consumers use today. Base-10 uses the decimal system to show that 1 GB equals one to the 10 th power of bytes, or 1 billion bytes. There are two standards for measuring the number of bytes in a gigabyte: base-10 and base-2. When the prefixes are added to the term byte, it creates units of measurement ranging from 1,000 bytes (kilobyte) to 1 sextillion bytes ( zettabyte) of data storage capacity.Ī gigabyte ( GB) is equivalent to about 1 billion bytes. Zetta (1 sextillion) was added to the SI metric prefixes in 1991. However, the origin and history of peta with data measurement terms is unclear. The prefixes exa (1 quintillion) and peta (1 quadrillion) were added to the International System of Units (SI) in 1975. Tera (1 trillion) comes from the Greek word teras or teratos, meaning "marvel, monster," and has been in use since approximately 1947. Giga comes from the Greek word for giant, and the first use of the term is believed to have taken place at the 1947 conference of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. Though mega is used these days to mean "extremely good, great or successful," its scientific meaning is 1 million. The prefix kilo (1,000) first came into existence between 18. History and origin of kilo, mega and more The lowercase k is the technically correct symbol for kilo when it represents 10 3, although the uppercase K is often used. For example, 1 kilobit per second (kbps) is equal to 10 3, or 1,000 bits per second ( bps) 1 megabit per second ( Mbps) is equal to 10 6, or 1,000,000 bps. Power-of-10 multipliers are also used to define binary data speeds. In IT and data storage, multipliers are defined in powers of two, from 2 10 to 2 80, proceeding in increments of 10 orders of magnitude - 2 10 or 1,024.Įxamples of quantities or phenomena in which power-of-10 prefix multipliers apply include frequency - including computer clock speeds - physical mass, power, energy, electrical voltage and electrical current. In communications, electronics and physics, multipliers are defined in powers of 10, from 10 -24 to 10 24, proceeding in increments of three orders of magnitude - 10 3 or 1,000. Sometimes called prefix multipliers, these prefixes are also used in electronics and physics. Kilo, mega, giga, tera, peta, exa and zetta are among the binary prefixes used to denote the quantity of something, such as a byte or bit in computing and telecommunications.
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