Digital Storage Units

In computing and telecommunications, a digital storage unit is a measurement for data storage is the capacity of some standard data storage system or communication channel used to measure the capacities of other systems and channels.

List all units of measurement

Below is a list of all the standard units of measurement used for data storage, from the smallest to the largest.

What is Bit?

A bit is short for binary digit, taking a value of either 0 or 1, corresponding to the electrical values of off or on, respectively. The letter “b” is the abbreviation for a bit. A bit is the smallest increment of data on a computer. The value of a bit is usually stored as either above or below a designated level of electrical charge in a

single capacitor within a memory device. Bits are usually assembled into a group of eight to form a byte. For example, the number 10010111 is 8 bits long, or a byte. A nibble is half a byte or four bits.

What is a Byte?

A byte is a unit of measure for digital information. A single byte contains eight consecutive bits and can store a single ASCII

character, such as a letter, number, or typographic symbol. Upper “B” is the abbreviation of Byte. Computer storage is usually measured in byte multiples. One Kilobyte is 1024 bytes, One Megabyte is 1024 Kilobytes, and so on.

What is Kilobyte?  

Kilobyte is the contraction of kilo and byte. A Kilobyte is a measure of computer memory or storage, a kilobyte is a unit of information or computer storage equal to 1,000 bytes or 1,024 bits (210). Kilobyte is usually abbreviated as K or KB.

What is Megabyte?

A megabyte or Mbyte is a unit of information or computer storage equal to either 10 to the 6th (1,000,000) bytes or 2 to the 20th power (1,048,576) bytes. Megabyte is commonly abbreviated as Mbyte or MB.

What is Gigabyte?

A gigabyte or Gbyte is a measure of computer data storage capacity and is “roughly” a billion bytes. One gigabyte is equal to 1,024 megabytes. Gigabyte uses G or GB as an abbreviation.

What is Terabyte?

A terabyte is a measure of computer storage capacity and is 2 to the 40th power or a thousand billion bytes. The value of a terabyte uses a decimal base (base 10). It is one trillion bytes (short scale) or 1000 gigabytes.  

What is Petabyte?

A petabyte is a unit of information or computer storage equal to one quadrillion bytes. A petabyte is a measure of memory or storage capacity and is 2 to the 50th power bytes or, in decimal, approximately a thousand terabytes.  It is commonly abbreviated PB. When used with byte multiples, the prefix may indicate a power of either 1000 or 1024.

What is Exabyte?

An exabyte is 1018 or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes. An exabyte (abbreviated “EB”) is equal to 1,000 petabytes and precedes the zettabyte unit of measurement. The exabyte unit of measurement is so large and not used to measure the capacity of data storage devices.  

What is Zettabyte?

A zettabyte is 1021 or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes. A zettabyte (abbreviated “ZB”) is equal to 1,000 exabytes and precedes the yottabyte unit of measurement. 

What is Yottabyte?

A yottabyte is 1024 or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes. A yottabyte (abbreviated “YB”) is equal to 1,000 zettabytes and is the largest SI unit of measurement used for measuring data. It is slightly smaller than its IEC-standardized counterpart.

What are data storage units?

A data storage unit is a term to describe the amount of information stored on digital devices. They save data in binary format, a system of 1s and 0s. That comes together in vastly complex strings to encode any digital information on a device or in a computer system.

What units of measurement are there for data storage?

Currently, there are several data storage units. These are the bit, byte, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte, petabyte, exabyte, zettabyte, and yottabyte.

What is the smallest unit of measurement in computer memory?

The smallest measure unit of data storage in computers and other discs is the bit. The binary value of a bit is equal to either 0 or 1.

What is the largest unit of measurement in computer memory?

The largest unit of memory measurement in computers is the Yottabyte so far.

What are the most used units of data storage capacity?

The most used units of data storage capacity are the kilobyte (KB), megabyte (MB), and gigabyte (GB).