Byte me!

Hey guys, I'm Baaaaaaaaack! Here with an article on Orders of Magnitude of Data.
It sounds so boring, right? No it isn't!

Have you ever had people asking you, "How big is your HDD (Hard Disk Drive) ?" and some of you go on to ponder the meaning of HDD, whereas some of you may answer with a certain feeling of pride, "240 GB" or even "840 GB", some may say "1 TB"...

What are all these? GB, TB?

I'm here to tell you about the different units of data, and how far they go! And believe me, they go a looooooooong way!!!

Let's start from scratch. What is a byte?



Wikipedia explains a byte as, "In computer science a byte is a unit of measurement of information storage, most often consisting of eight bits. In many computer architectures it is a unit of memory addressing."

A byte is a collection of 8 bits.



Now, there is a different terminology for the representation for different units of data. There's the Decimal representation and then there's the binary representation.

Bit :
The smallest unit of information in a system. A bit has a single binary value, either 0 or 1. A four-bit quantity is known as a nibble.

Byte :
A Byte is a series of 8 bits. It is also called as character. Computer storage space is usually measured in Bytes. It is a sequence of bits processed as one unit of information.Comprised of eight bits, they are large enough to hold one character of alphanumeric data.

Kilobyte : Kibibyte
A kilobyte or KB is approximately 1000 bytes(10³) in SI value. Kibibyte is a unit of information or computer storage, which are used to measure memory capacity.A kibibyte or KiB is approximately 1024 bytes(2¹⁰) in Binary value.

Megabyte : Mebibyte
A megabyte or MB is approximately 1000000 bytes(10⁶) in SI value. Mebibyte is an amount of computer memory consisting of about one million bytes. A mebibyte or MiB is approximately 1,048,576 bytes(2²⁰) in Binary value.

Gigabyte : Gibibyte
A gigabyte or GB is approximately 1000000000 bytes(10⁹) in SI value. Gibibyte is a measure of computer data storage capacity about one billion bytes. A gibibyte or GiB is approximately 1,073,741,824 bytes(2³⁰) in Binary value.

Kilobit : Kibibit
A kilobit or kb is approximately 1000 bits(10³) in SI value. Kibibit is a data transmission speed measure. A kibibit or Kibit is approximately 1024 bits(2¹⁰) in Binary value.

Megabit : Mebibit
A megabit or Mb is approximately 1000000 bits(10⁶) in SI value. Mebibit is used to measure higher rates of data transfer, it consist of one million bits. A mebibit or Mibit is approximately 1,048,576 bits(2²⁰) in Binary value.

Gigabit : Gibibit
A gigabit or Gb is approximately 1000000000 bits(10⁹) in SI value. Gibibit is used for measuring the amount of data that is transferred in a second between two telecommunication points, it consist of one billion bytes. A gibibit or Gibit is approximately 1,073,741,824 bits(2³⁰) in Binary value.

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The Decimal Representation is known as "SI Prefix" or the "Metric Prefix".
In SI Prefix, the representation of data is as:

Quantities of BYTES (SI Prefix):

1000¹ = 10³ ==> KiloByte (KB)
1000² = 10⁶ ==> MegaByte (MB)
1000³ = 10⁹ ==> GigaByte (GB)
1000⁴ = 10¹² ==> TeraByte (TB)
1000⁵ = 10¹⁵ ==> PetaByte (PB)
1000⁶ = 10¹⁸ ==> ExaByte (EB)
1000⁷ = 10²¹ ==> ZettaByte (ZB)
1000⁸ = 10²⁴ ==> YottaByte (YB)

These are the general terms that we come across everyday, but when we say a KiloByte, we think we mean 1 KiloByte = 1024 Bytes, which is ABSOLUTELY wrong!

That is the BINARY Representation of data...
And here is the representation of different orders in Binary:

Quantities of Bytes (Binary/Metric Prefix):

1024¹ = 2¹⁰ = 1.024 x 10³ ==> KibiByte (KiB)
1024² = 2²⁰ ≈ 1.049 x 10⁶ ==> MebiByte (MiB)
1024³ = 2³⁰ ≈ 1.074 x 10⁹ ==> GibiByte (GiB)
1024⁴ = 2⁴⁰ ≈ 1.100 x 10¹² ==> TebiByte (TiB)
1024⁵ = 2⁵⁰ ≈ 1.126 x 10¹⁵ ==> PebiByte (PiB)
1024⁶ = 2⁶⁰ ≈ 1.153 x 10¹⁸ ==> ExbiByte (EiB)
1024⁷ = 2⁷⁰ ≈ 1.181 x 10²¹ ==> ZebiByte (ZiB)
1024⁸ = 2⁸⁰ ≈ 1.209 x 10²⁴ ==> YobiByte (YiB)

So, what we generally talk about is really something else~!

Here's the difference (percentage) in magnitude of the two:

The difference between two values i.e.

SI is less than Binary by: Difference between - KiloByte and KibiByte ==> 2.40%

MebiByte and MegaByte ==> 4.86%

GibiByte and GigaByte ==> 7.37%

TebiByte and TeraByte ==> 9.95%

PebiByte and PetaByte ==> 12.59%

ExbiByte and ExaByte ==> 15.29% And it goes on increasing! So people, don't confuse yourself with names! They look a LoT alike, but are WAY different! :D Until the next time! Adios!