Storage Capacity - what do these numbers mean? - January 31, 2009
Here are some real-world examples of the approximate storage capacities of 'commonly' encountered objects.
Bit - The fundamental binary data unit: 1 or 0
Bytes (8 bits)
1 byte: A single character
10 bytes: A single word
100 bytes: A telegram OR a punched card
Kilobyte, KB: (1,000 bytes)
1 Kilobyte: A very 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 very heavy box of punched cards
Megabyte, MB (1,000,000 bytes)
1-2 Megabytes: A small novel OR a 3.5 inch floppy disk
2 Megabytes: High resolution photograph
5 Megabytes: The complete 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 encyclopaedic book
200 Megabytes: A reel of 9-track tape OR an IBM 3480 cartridge tape
500-600 Megabytes: A CD-ROM
Gigabyte, GB (1,000,000,000 bytes)
1 Gigabyte: A pickup truck filled with paper OR a symphony in high-fidelity sound OR a movie at TV quality
2 Gigabytes: 20 meters of shelved books OR a stack of 9-track tapes
5 Gigabytes: An 8mm digital tape OR a DVD-ROM
10 Gigabytes: Typical PC hard disk drive
20 Gigabytes: A good collection of the works of Beethoven OR 5 digital tapes (8 mm) OR a VHS tape used for digital data
50 Gigabytes: A floor of books
100 Gigabytes: A floor of academic journals
200 Gigabytes: 50 digital tapes, 8 mm
Terabyte, TB (1,000,000,000,000 bytes)
1 Terabyte: An automated tape robot OR all the X-ray films in a large technological hospital OR 50,000 trees made into paper and printed OR 50,000 trees' worth of printed pages
2 Terabytes: An academic research library OR A cabinet full of Exabyte tapes
10 Terabytes: The printed collection of the US Library of Congress
50 Terabytes: The contents of a large Mass Storage System
10-100 Terabytes: Estimated capacity of human brain
Petabyte, PB (1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes)
1 Petabyte: 3 years of EOS data (2001)
2 Petabytes: All US academic research libraries
20 Petabytes: Production of hard-disk drives in 1995
200 Petabytes: All printed material OR production of digital magnetic tape in 1995
Exabyte, EB (1,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes)
5 Exabytes: All words ever spoken by human beings.
Zettabyte, ZB (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes)
Yottabyte, YB (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes)
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