1. Universal binary standard that defines the capacity of a physical device to store data, and the space that each digital file should occupy according to its properties, that is, a 300×300 pixel photo does not represent the same size as a five-minute video in 4K quality.
Extent # Size
– Bit # Single digit, by 1 or 0
– Byte # 8 bits
– Kilobyte (KB) # 1,024 Bytes
– Megabyte (MB) # 1,024 Kilobytes (10242 Bytes)
– Gigabyte (GB) # 1,024 Megabytes (10243 Bytes)
– Terabyte (TB) # 1,024 Gigabytes (10244 Bytes)
– Petabyte (PB) # 1,024 Terabyte (10245 Bytes)
– Exabyte (EB) # 1,024 Petabyte (10246 Bytes)
– Zettabyte (ZB) # 1,024 Exabyte (10247 Bytes)
– Yottabyte (YB) # 1,024 Zettabyte (10248 Bytes)
Etymology: Measure, by the verb to measure, in Latin metiri, and the suffix -ida, deverbal noun as ‘action and effect’. + Storage, by the verb to store, warehouse, by the Hispanic Arabic almaẖzán on classical arabic maẖzanin the sense of ‘deposit’, and the suffix -amento, with the deverbal property of ‘action-effect’.
Grammatical category: noun fem.
in syllables: me-di-das + de + al-ma-ce-na-mento.
storage measures
Alsina González
Specialist journalist and researcher
They are those units of measurement that allow determining how much space is available in a memory unit.
A storage measure is the record of the space on a given device to record data and information permanently or temporarily.
It can also be understood as that practice that is carried out with the interest of optimizing performance and taking advantage of all the space that exists within a unit.
In computing, there are different storage devices that facilitate the preservation of information, either inside the computer or outside, such as a portable memory. The devices can be either a memory or hard drive, a disk or CD – ROM, a flash or portable memory, a DVD and several others. In these, the information can be stored provisionally or temporarily or permanently.
When they talk to us about “megabytes”, “gigas” and “teras”, we often lose our bearings on whether they are talking about a large or small storage space. To clarify, here is a guide on how to understand storage measures on hard drives, USB flash drives and other computer media.
The most basic unit is the bit, which corresponds to a single unit of information that can present only one of two possible states, 0/1 (or yes/no, white/black,…).
We will rarely refer to bits when we talk about storage, and if they tell us that the system is 32 or 64 bits, they are not referring to anything that refers to storage, but to the word width of the bus.
The next storage unit is the byte, consisting of eight bits.
The bytes will not be mentioned when we talk about storage units either, since it is a very small unit, and it is used to store a letter, number or symbol.
It is obvious that any computer system will need to store more than just characters, so we move to larger storage units.
A Kilobyte (abbreviated as KB) is a set of 1024 bytes, although it is also simplified in common language as referring to 1,000 bytes.
Since the beginning of microinformatics (note! not of informatics, but of microcomputers), the KB has been the unit that has been talked about most frequently. However, it should be noted that many of the first microcomputers did not have storage units by default, they had to be installed externally afterwards.
Early floppy drives had anywhere from 100 to 400KB of capacity per disk, even reaching over 700KB before moving to the top storage drive, which I’ll talk about a bit later.
RAM memory is also measured by the same parameters, since it uses bits to temporarily store information. For example, the first microcomputers integrated 1 KB of RAM memory, like the Sinclair ZX81, or a few more, like the 4 KB of the Apple I from 1976 (yes, before the Sinclair model).
The megabyte (MB) consists of a set of 1024 KB, or for simplicity we round it up to 1,000 KB.
The first hard drives, large-capacity storage units, had at most one to ten megabytes.
To give you an idea, the first hard drive I installed in my first PC had a capacity of 20 MB, much less than what a hard drive has now. flash drive USB of the smallest.
Also, and “affectionately”, the Megabyte is called “mega”.
With the Gigabyte (GB), the calculation form is repeated: 1 GB is 1024 MB (1,000 for short)
Like the “mega”, the Gigabyte is known in the family as “giga”, and it is a measure that we have much more on our lips because, currently, most microcomputer systems measure their amounts of RAM memory and their storage devices. storage in gigabytes.
For example, if we have to buy a new computer, we can value buying it with 2, 4, 8 or 16 GB of RAM, and with a disk that goes from 500 GB upwards.
The unit that passes from the Gigabyte is the Terabyte (TB). And, as we could already imagine, 1 TB is equivalent to 1024 GB (yes, to simplify, we will refer to 1,000 GB).
At the moment, we are talking about Terabytes for the most powerful hard drives and storage units, as well as for information downloaded and exchanged on networks of all kinds, the Internet of course.
From here on, the names of the following storage measures are less heard, since their size is such that, up to now, they have only been used in more technical conversations, such as those referring to the big dataso I’ll simplify them with a schematic:
1 Petabyte (PB) = 1024 Terabytes
1 Exabyte (EB) = 1024 Petabytes
1 Zettabyte (ZB) = 1024 Exabytes
1 Yottabyte (YB) = 1024 Zettabytes
What, logically, comes from here exceeding the Yottabyte, has not yet been standardized, that is, there is no universally accepted nomenclature to refer to such a volume of data.
This is so because, simply, it has not yet come to having to name the units that come beyond the Yottabyte. Quite simply, humanity has not generated enough information to handle these figures.
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