Topics / Data Storage and Compression / Data Storage Capacity

Data Storage Capacity

Data storage capacity is the measurement of how much data can be stored in a storage device.

Bits, bytes and nibbles

Data storage capacities are measured in bytes, where each byte is actually a pattern of 8 bits.

1 byte = 8 bits (e.g. 10011011)

1 nibble = 4 bits (e.g. 1001)

Each bit is represented by either a 1 or a 0 (on or off), also known as binary code.

1 byte can hold 1 character of data, e.g. “p” is 1 byte.

As technology improves, it is becoming cheaper to achieve higher data storage capacities.

International System of Units –  data storage capacities

NameBytes
1 kilobyte (1 KB)10^3 (or 1 000)
1 megabyte (1 MB)10^6 (or 1 000 000)
1 gigabyte (1 GB)10^9 (or 1 000 000 000)
1 terabyte (1 TB)10^12 (or 1 000 000 000 000)
1 petabyte (1 PB)10^15 (or 1 000 000 000 000 000)
1 exabyte (1 EB)10^18 (or 1 000 000 000 000 000 000)

Each unit of measurement is 1000 times bigger than the unit before it.

International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) – data storage capacities

NameBytes
1 kibibyte (1 KiB)2^10 (or 1 024)
1 mebibyte (1 MiB)2^20 (or 1 048 576)
1 gibibyte (1 GiB)2^30 (or 1 073 741 824)
1 tebibyte (1 TiB)2^40 (or 1 099 511 627 776)
1 pebibyte (1 PiB)2^50 (or 1 125 899 906 842 624)
1 exbibyte (1 EiB)2^60 (or 1 152 921 504 606 846 976)

Each unit of measurement is 1024 times bigger than the unit before it.

Topics / Data Storage and Compression / Data Storage Capacity

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