The entire library of congress can be stored on 82 terabytes of data. One terabyte of data can store just under two and a half years of music played continuously. The GB is quickly becoming the standard by which storage capacity is judged as most computer hardware will advertize capacity in terms of GB’s Terabyte: 1 trillion, or 1,000,000,000,000 bytesĬurrently, hard drive capacity does not exceed this order of magnitude. Gigabyte: 1 billion, or 1,000,000,000 bytesįinally respectable. Even a pre-historic floppy disc can store a bunch of these. This octet of bits is the smallest unit for a base 1,000 order of magnitude naming system as follows… Kilobyte: 1 thousand or, 1,000 bytesįiles not relying on on the kilo prefix are the boring ones, word docs, excel sheets, most pictures. Byte: 1 ByteĪ single byte stores eight bits*, eight 1’s or 0’s. When represented as a string it is called binary code. All computer data can be broken down to a string of these 1 and 0 (like in the Matrix, only it doesn’t fall down the screen like rain). It is a binary digit meaning that it can take the value of either 1 or 0. The bit is the smallest fundamental size of data storage.

I’m sure you are all familiar with the 1st several entries but the latter ones ought to give you a run for your money, ever heard of a petabyte or a yottabyte?Ĭomputer Storage Units Smallest to Largest Bit is an eighth of a byte*

Here is a fun breakdown of data nomenclature.

Gb to byte