- byte's
The fundamental data unit of personal computers, a byte is eight contiguous bits. The byte is also the basic unit of measurement for computer storage, storing the equivalent of one character. Computer architecture is based mostly on binary numbers, so bytes are counted in powers of two (which is why some people prefer to call groups of eight bits "octets"). The terms kilo (in kilobyte, abbreviated as K) and mega (in megabyte, abbreviated as M) are used to count bytes (even though they are misleading, since they derive from a decimal base of 10
- Kilobyte 2^10 1,024 bytes or 8,192 bits
So, a kilobyte is actually 1,024 (210) bytes. To distinguish between a decimal K (1,000) and a binary K (1,024), the IEEE has suggested using a small k for a decimal kilo and a capital K for a binary kilo. In international English, outside the U.S.A., the equivalent unit is sometimes seen as "Kb" or "kbyte."
- Kilobyte 10^3 or One thousand 1,000
Abbreviated as K or KB also seen as Kb kbyte. A unit of measurement equivalent to one thousand bytes of computer memory or disk capacity. For example, a device that has 256K of memory can store approximately 256,000 bytes (or characters) at one time. In decimal systems, kilo stands for 1,000, but the computer world is based on a binary system of twos instead of tens.
- Megabyte 10^6 one million 1,000,000
abbreviated as M or MB, A million bytes or one thousand kilobytes.
- Gigabyte 10^9 one billion 1,000,000,000
Abbreviated as G or GB. A unit of measurement approximately equal to 1 billion bytes. A gigabyte is used to quantify memory or disk capacity. One gigabyte equals 1,000MB (actually 1,024 megabytes).
- Terabyte 10^12 one trillion 1,000,000,000,000
A unit of memory measurement equal to approximately one trillion bytes (actually 1,099,511,627,776 bytes). A terabyte is equivalent to 1,000 gigabytes or 1,000,000 megabytes.
- Petabyte 10^15 one quadrillion 1,000,000,000,000,000
A unit of memory measurement that is 250 bytes (equal to 1,125,899,906,842,624 bytes or 1,024 terabyte). It's used primarily in distributed storage solutions and within major enterprise solutions.
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