What is a “Terabyte” Anyway?

Well, since you asked. Remembering that everything in a computer is based on bits of data (a terabyte is 243 bits), the following table shows the progression from 1 bit to 1 Terabyte.
1 bit                    
8 bits 1 byte                
16 bits 2 bytes                
32 bits 4 bytes                
64 bits 8 bytes                
128 bits 16 bytes                
256 bits 32 bytes                
512 bits 64 bytes                
1,024 bits 128 bytes                
2,048 bits 256 bytes                
4,096 bits 512 bytes                
8,192 bits 1,024 bytes 1 K            
16,384 bits 2,048 bytes 2 K            
32,768 bits 4,096 bytes 4 K            
65,536 bits 8,192 bytes 8 K            
131,072 bits 16,384 bytes 16 K            
262,144 bits 32,768 bytes 32 K            
524,288 bits 65,536 bytes 64 K            
1,048,576 bits 131,072 bytes 128 K            
2,097,152 bits 262,144 bytes 256 K            
4,194,304 bits 524,288 bytes 512 K            
8,388,608 bits 1,048,576 bytes 1,024 K 1 MB        
16,777,216 bits 2,097,152 bytes 2,048 K 2 MB        
33,554,432 bits 4,194,304 bytes 4,096 K 4 MB        
67,108,864 bits 8,388,608 bytes 8,192 K 8 MB        
134,217,728 bits 16,777,216 bytes 16,384 K 16 MB        
268,435,456 bits 33,554,432 bytes 32,768 K 32 MB        
536,870,912 bits 67,108,864 bytes 65,536 K 64 MB        
1,073,741,824 bits 134,217,728 bytes 131,072 K 128 MB        
2,147,483,648 bits 268,435,456 bytes 262,144 K 256 MB        
4,294,967,296 bits 536,870,912 bytes 524,288 K 512 MB        
8,589,934,592 bits 1,073,741,824 bytes 1,048,576 K 1,024 MB 1 GB    
17,179,869,184 bits 2,147,483,648 bytes 2,097,152 K 2,048 MB 2 GB    
34,359,738,368 bits 4,294,967,296 bytes 4,194,304 K 4,096 MB 4 GB    
68,719,476,736 bits 8,589,934,592 bytes 8,388,608 K 8,192 MB 8 GB    
137,438,953,472 bits 17,179,869,184 bytes 16,777,216 K 16,384 MB 16 GB    
274,877,906,944 bits 34,359,738,368 bytes 33,554,432 K 32,768 MB 32 GB    
549,755,813,888 bits 68,719,476,736 bytes 67,108,864 K 65,536 MB 64 GB    
1,099,511,627,776 bits 137,438,953,472 bytes 134,217,728 K 131,072 MB 128 GB    
2,199,023,255,552 bits 274,877,906,944 bytes 268,435,456 K 262,144 MB 256 GB    
4,398,046,511,104 bits 549,755,813,888 bytes 536,870,912 K 524,288 MB 512 GB    
8,796,093,022,208 bits 1,099,511,627,776 bytes 1,073,741,824 K 1,048,576 MB 1,024 GB 1 TB

 

© 1995-2011 Terabyte Computers, Inc. - All Rights Reserved