Now, a normal note pad has one terabyte of storage or almost 100,000 times more however even this figure is laughable when you consider how much data were generating today on a daily basis. According to IBM, every day were creating 2.5 quintillion bytes of data, enough to fill 125,00 DVDs, and 90% of todays digital information was developed in the last two years.
Even those who are computer savvy still take a look at data at the gigabyte or terabyte-scale but its clear were moving well past this point. Navigating the various systems of data storage can be confusing and dizzying so lets take a brief summary of how we measure information and put some context on a few of the more odd units of digital info like the petabyte or yottabyte.
Contents1 Units of data1.1 The bit1.2 The Byte1.3 Kilobyte (1024 Bytes) 1.4 Megabyte (1024 Kilobytes) 1.5 Gigabyte (1,024 Megabytes, or 1,048,576 Kilobytes) 1.6 Terabyte (1,024 Gigabytes) 1.7 Petabyte( 1,024 Terabytes, or 1,048,576 Gigabytes) 1.8 Exabyte (1,024 Petabytes) 1.9 Zettabyte (1,024 Exabytes) 1.10 Yottabyte (1,024 Zettabytes, or 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 bytes) 1.11 Ronnabyte (1,024 Exabytes) 1.12 Quettabyte (1,024 Exabytes) 1.13 How digital storage works
Systems of information
The bit
The bit, brief for BInary digiT, is the smallest system of information a computer system can read. Basically, it can be either a 1 or 0.
The Byte
The byte is composed of 8 bits.
0.1 bytes: a binary choice
1 byte: a single character
10 bytes: a single word
100 bytes: a telegram OR A punched card
Kilobyte (1024 Bytes).
1 Kilobyte: an extremely short story.
2 Kilobytes: a typewritten page.
10 Kilobytes: an encyclopaedic page or a deck of punched cards.
50 Kilobytes: a compressed document image page.
100 Kilobytes: a low-resolution photograph.
200 Kilobytes: a box of punched cards.
500 Kilobytes: a really heavy box of punched cards.
Megabyte (1024 Kilobytes).
1 Megabyte: 4 books (873 pages of plain text) ora a 3.5-inch floppy disk.
2 Megabytes: a high-resolution photograph.
5 Megabytes: the total works of Shakespeare or 30 seconds of TV-quality video.
10 Megabytes: a minute of high-fidelity sound or a digital chest X-ray.
20 Megabytes: a box of floppy disks.
50 Megabytes: a digital mammogram.
100 Megabytes: 1 meter of shelved books or a two-volume encyclopedic book.
200 Megabytes: a reel of 9-track tape or an IBM 3480 cartridge tape.
500 Megabytes: a CD-ROM.
Gigabyte (1,024 Megabytes, or 1,048,576 Kilobytes).
1 Gigabyte: a pickup truck filled with paper or a symphony in high-fidelity noise or a film at television quality. 1 Gigabyte could hold the contents of about 10 yards of books on a rack.
2 Gigabytes: 20 meters of shelved books.
5 Gigabytes: an 8mm Exabyte tape.
20 Gigabytes: a top quality audio collection of the works of Beethoven or a VHS tape utilized for digital data.
50 Gigabytes: a floor of books or hundreds of 9-track tapes.
100 Gigabytes: a floor of scholastic journals.
Terabyte (1,024 Gigabytes).
1 Terabyte: An automatic tape robotic or all the X-ray films in a large technological healthcare facility or 50,000 trees made into paper and printed.
1 Terabyte: 1,613 650MB CDs or 4,581,298 books.
1 Terabyte: 1,000 copies of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
2 Terabytes: an academic research study library or a cabinet complete of Exabyte tapes.
10 Terabytes: the printed collection of the United States Library of Congress.
Petabyte( 1,024 Terabytes, or 1,048,576 Gigabytes).
1 Petabyte: 5 years of Earth Observing System (EOS) (at 46 mbps).
1 Petabyte: 20 million 4-door filing cabinets complete of text or 500 billion pages of basic printed text.
2 Petabytes: all US academic research libraries.
20 Petabytes: production of hard-disk drives in 1995.
200 Petabytes: all printed material ever OR Production of digital magnetic tape in 1995.
Zettabyte (1,024 Exabytes).
The Yotta prefix was officially presented in 1991 throughout a time when it was inconceivable that data could grow any larger than that. Oh, how incorrect we were. To compensate, individuals have unofficially utilized their own unauthorized prefixes like the brontobyte and hellabyte (both are 1,024 yottabytes or 1 followed by 27 nos). Given that 2022, two new prefixes have been added to the International System of Units, ronna (1 followed by 27 nos) and quetta (1 followed by 30 zeroes).
Ronnabyte (1,024 Exabytes).
Its equal to one septillion (1024) or, strictly, 280 bytes.
Its name comes from the prefix Yotta obtained from the Ancient Greek οκτώ (októ), suggesting “8”, since it is equivalent to 1,0008.
In 2010, it would have cost $100 trillion to make a yottabyte storage system made out of the days hard disks.
Its equal to one nonillion (1030 ) bytes.
Yottabyte (1,024 Zettabytes, or 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 bytes).
Quettabyte (1,024 Exabytes).
Exabyte (1,024 Petabytes).
How digital storage works.
Morse code is binary. Credit: Web Courses.
People view information in analog. What we see or hear is processed in the brain from a continuous stream. In contrast, a mputer is digital and estimates such info utilizing 1sts and 0s.
The person listening on the other end would then understand the binary data written in Morse code into plain English. Transferring a message over telegraph might take a while, much longer than a message relayed over the telephone for instance, but in todays digital age this is not a problem since digital information can be deciphered in an immediate by computers.
Digital storage has numerous benefits over analog much in the very same way digital communication of information holds benefits over analog interaction. Possibly the clearest example of why digital storage transcends to analog is resistance to data corruption. Lets look at audio or video tapes for a moment. To keep information, a thin plastic tape is fertilized with particles of iron oxide which end up being magnetized or demagnetized in the presence of a magnetic field from an electromagnet coil. Data is then obtained from the tape by moving it past another coil of wire which allures certain spots around the tape to induce a voltage.
If we were to use analog techniques to keep all of our data, like representing a signal by the strength of magnetization of the various areas on the tape, we d encounter a lot of problem. As the tape ages and magnetization fades, the analog signal will be changed from its original state when the information was first taped. Additionally, any magnetic field can modify the magnetization on the tape. Since analog signals have infinite resolution, the tiniest degree of modification will have an impact on the stability of the data storage.
This is no longer an issue in binary digital form because the strength of magnetization on the tape will be considered in two discrete levels: either high or low. It makes no difference what the in-between states are. Even if the tape experiences slight alterations from electromagnetic fields, the information is safe from corruption since the discrete levels are still there.
Its equal to one octillion (1027 ) bytes.
An exabyte of data was produced on the Internet every day in 2012 or 250 million DVDs worth of info.
5 Exabytes: All words ever spoken by all the human beings who lived in history.
According to IBM, every day were creating 2.5 quintillion bytes of information, enough to fill 125,00 DVDs, and 90% of todays digital data was created in the last two years.
Transmitting a message over telegraph could take a while, much longer than a message passed on over the telephone for instance, however in todays digital age this is not an issue due to the fact that digital data can be translated in an immediate by computers. Possibly the clearest example of why digital storage is exceptional to analog is resistance to data corruption. Information is then obtained from the tape by moving it past another coil of wire which magnetizes specific spots around the tape to cause a voltage.
If we were to utilize analog techniques to store all of our data, like representing a signal by the strength of magnetization of the different areas on the tape, we d run into a lot of problem.