Terabyte

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Template:Quantities of bytes

A terabyte (derived from the SI prefix tera-) is a measurement term for data storage capacity equal to approximately 1000 gigabytes. Another way to look at is one trillion (short scale) bytes. It is commonly abbreviated TB.

Because of irregularities in using the binary prefix in the definition and usage of the kilobyte, the exact number in common practice could be either one of the following:

• 1,000,000,000,000 bytes – 1000⁴ or 10¹².
• 1,099,511,627,776 bytes – 1024⁴ or 2⁴⁰. (This capacity may be expressed unambiguously as a tebibyte.)

The prefix "tera" originates from the Greek word teras meaning 'monster'.

Terabytes in use

• The books in the U.S. Library of Congress have been said to contain approximately 20 terabytes of text.
• The shipping company UPS has approximately 474 terabytes of information in its databases.
• 18 minutes of UHDV consumes 3.5 terabytes of data.
• Personal computers and related devices such as TiVos containing a terabyte or more of storage space have recently become practical using combinations of high-capacity mass-market hard drives. As of November 2005, common commercial hard drives exceeded 500 gigabytes in size, so storage capacity totalling a terabyte or more can be reached using as few as 2 to 3 hard disks, at a street cost of as little as USD $450, down from over USD $1000 in 2003. (source: www.newegg.com)

A terabyte is equivalent to 1000 gigabytes, while a tebibyte is equivalent to 1024 gibibytes.

See also

• tebibyte
• terabit
• binary prefix
• orders of magnitude (data)
• Terabyte is also the name of a Macromedia Flash web design company. Terabyte is based in Auckland, New Zealand.cs:Terabyte

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