Orders of magnitude (data)
An order of magnitude is a factor of ten. A quantity growing by four orders of magnitude implies it has grown by a factor of 10000 or 104.
This article presents a list of multiples, sorted by orders of magnitude, for digital information storage measured in bits. This article assumes a descriptive attitude towards terminology, reflecting general usage. The article assumes the following:
- A group of 8 bits constitutes one byte. The byte is the most common unit of measurement of information (megabyte, mebibyte, gigabyte, gibibyte, etc.).
- In 16-bit and 32-bit architectures, having processor registers of these sizes, that chunk of data is usually called a word.
- The decimal SI prefixes kilo, mega etc., are powers of 10. The binary prefixes kibi, mebi, etc. respectively refer to similar multiples.
Accordingly:
Binary [bits] |
Decimal | Item | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Factor | Term | Factor | Term | |
20 | bit | 100 | bit | 1 bit – 0 or 1, false or true, Low or High |
1.58496 bits () – approximate size of a trit (a base-3 digit) | ||||
21 | 2 bits – a crumb (rarely used term), enough to uniquely identify one base pair of DNA | |||
3 bits – the size of an octal digit | ||||
22 | nibble | 4 bits – (aka "nybble" or "semioctet", rarely used) the size of a hexadecimal digit; decimal digits in binary-coded decimal form | ||
5 bits – the size of code points in the Baudot code, used in telex communication | ||||
6 bits – the size of code points in Univac Fieldata, in IBM "BCD" format, and in Braille. Enough to uniquely identify one codon of genetic code. | ||||
7 bits – the size of code points in the ASCII character set
– minimum length to store 2 decimal digits | ||||
23 | byte | 8 bits – (a.k.a. "octet") on many computer architectures.
– Equivalent to 1 "word" on 8-bit computers (Apple II, Atari 800, Commodore 64, et al.). | ||
101 | decabit | 10 bits – minimum bit length to store a single byte with error-correcting computer memory | ||
12 bits – wordlength of the PDP-8 of Digital Equipment Corporation (built from 1965–1990) | ||||
24 | 16 bits – commonly used in many programming languages, the size of an integer capable of holding 65,536 different values | |||
25 | 32 bits (4 bytes) – size of an integer capable of holding 4,294,967,296 different values | |||
36 bits – size of word on Univac 1100-series computers and Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP-10 | ||||
56 bits (7 bytes) – cipher strength of the DES encryption standard | ||||
26 | 64 bits (8 bytes) – size of an integer capable of holding 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 different values | |||
80 bits (10 bytes) – size of an extended precision floating point number, for intermediate calculations that can be performed in floating point units of most processors of the x86 family. Capacity of a punched card. | ||||
102 | hectobit | 100 bits | ||
27 | 128 bits (16 bytes) – size of addresses in IPv6, the successor protocol of IPv4 | |||
160 bits – maximum key length of the SHA-1, standard Tiger (hash), and Tiger2 cryptographic message digest algorithms | ||||
28 | 256 bits (32 bytes) – minimum key length for the recommended strong cryptographic message digests as of 2004[update] | |||
29 | 512 bits (64 bytes) – maximum key length for the standard strong cryptographic message digests in 2004 | |||
103 | kilobit | 1000 bits | ||
210 | kibibit | 1024 bits (128 bytes) - RAM capacity of the Atari 2600 | ||
1288 bits – approximate maximum capacity of a standard magnetic stripe card | ||||
211 | 2048 bits (256 bytes) – RAM capacity of the stock Altair 8800 | |||
212 | 4096 bits (512 bytes)
– typical sector size, and minimum space allocation unit on computer storage volumes, with most file systems | |||
4704 bits (588 bytes) – uncompressed single-channel frame length in standard MPEG audio (75 frames per second and per channel), with medium quality 8-bit sampling at 44,100 Hz (or 16-bit sampling at 22,050 Hz) | ||||
8000 bits (103 bytes) – one kilobyte | ||||
213 | kibibyte | 8192 bits (1,024 bytes) – RAM capacity of a Sinclair ZX81. | ||
9408 bits (1,176 bytes) – uncompressed single-channel frame length in standard MPEG audio (75 frames per second and per channel), with standard 16-bit sampling at 44,100 Hz | ||||
104 | 15,360 bits – one screen of data displayed on an 8-bit monochrome text console (80x24) | |||
214 | 16,384 bits (2 kibibytes) – one page of typed text,[1] RAM capacity of Nintendo Entertainment System | |||
215 | 32,768 bits (4 kibibytes) | |||
216 | 65,536 bits (8 kibibytes) | |||
105 | 100,000 bits | |||
217 | 131,072 bits (16 kibibytes) – RAM capacity of the smallest Sinclair ZX Spectrum. | |||
160 kilobits – approximate size of this article as of 15 April 2010 | ||||
218 | 262,144 bits (32 kibibytes) | |||
219 | 524,288 bits (64 kibibytes) – RAM capacity of a lot of popular 8-bit Computers like the C-64, Amstrad CPC etc. | |||
106 | megabit | 1,000,000 bits | ||
220 | mebibit | 1,048,576 bits (128 kibibytes) – RAM capacity of popular 8-bit Computers like the C-128, Amstrad CPC etc. Or a 1024 x 768 pixel jpeg image. | ||
1,978,560 bits – a one-page, standard-resolution black-and-white fax (1728 × 1145 pixels) | ||||
221 | 2,097,152 bits (256 kibibytes) | |||
4,147,200 bits – one frame of uncompressed NTSC DVD video (720 × 480 × 12 bpp Y'CbCr) | ||||
222 | 4,194,304 bits (512 kibibytes) | |||
4 976 640 bits – one frame of uncompressed PAL DVD video (720 × 576 × 12 bpp Y'CbCr) | ||||
5 000 000 bits – Typical English book volume in plain text format of 500 pages × 2000 characters per page and 5-bits per character. | ||||
5,242,880 bits (640 kibibytes) – the maximum addressable memory of the original IBM PC architecture | ||||
8,000,000 bits (106 bytes) – the preferred definition of megabyte | ||||
8,343,400 bits – one "typical" sized photograph with reasonably good quality (1024 × 768 pixels). | ||||
223 | mebibyte | 8,388,608 bits (1024 kibibytes), one of a few traditional meanings of megabyte | ||
107 | 11,520,000 bits – capacity of a lower-resolution computer monitor (as of 2006), 800 × 600 pixels, 24 bpp | |||
11,796,480 bits – capacity of a 3.5 in floppy disk, colloquially known as 1.44 megabyte but actually 1.44 × 1000 × 1024 bytes | ||||
224 | 16,777,216 bits (2 mebibytes) | |||
25 000 000 bits – amount of data in a typical color slide | ||||
30 000 000 bits – The first commercial harddisk IBM 350 in 1956 could store 3.75 MiB for a cost of 50 000 USD, equivalent to 560342.72 USD today.[2] | ||||
225 | 33 554 432 bits (4 mebibytes) – RAM capacity of stock Nintendo 64 and average size of a music track in MP3 format. | |||
41,943,040 bits (5 mebibytes) – approximate size of the Complete Works of Shakespeare[1] | ||||
80 000 000 bits – In 1985 a 10 MB harddisk cost 710 USD, equivalent to 2011.37 USD today.[2] | ||||
98,304,000 bits – capacity of a high-resolution computer monitor as of 2011, 2560 × 1600 pixels, 24 bpp | ||||
50 – 100 megabits – amount of information in a typical phone book | ||||
226 | 108 | 67,108,864 bit (8 mebibytes) | ||
227 | 134,217,728 bits (16 mebibytes) | |||
150 megabits – amount of data in a large foldout map | ||||
228 | 268,435,456 bits (32 mebibytes) | |||
144 000 000 bits: In 1980 a 18 MB harddisk cost 4199 USD, equivalent to 15527.48 USD today.[2] | ||||
423,360,000 bits: a five-minute audio recording, in CDDA quality | ||||
229 | 536,870,912 bits (64 mebibytes) | |||
109 | gigabit | 1,000,000,000 bits | ||
230 | gibibit | 1,073,741,824 bits (128 mebibytes) | ||
231 | 2,147,483,648 bits (256 mebibytes) | |||
232 | 4,294,967,296 bits (512 mebibytes) | |||
5.45×109 bits (650 mebibytes) – capacity of a regular compact disc (CD) | ||||
5.89×109 bits (702 mebibytes) – capacity of a large regular compact disc | ||||
6.4×109 bits – capacity of the human genome (assuming 2 bits for each base pair) | ||||
6 710 886 400 bits – average size of a movie in Divx format in 2002.[3] | ||||
8 000 000 000 bits – in 1995 a 1 GB harddisk cost 849 USD, equivalent to 1697.63 USD today.[2] | ||||
233 | gibibyte | 8 589 934 592 bits (1024 mebibytes) – The maximum disk capacity using the 21-bit LBA SCSI standard introduced in 1979. | ||
1010 | 10 000 000 000 bits | |||
234 | 17 179 869 184 bits (2 gibibytes). The storage limit of IDE standard for harddisks in 1986. And the volume limit for FAT16 released in 1984. | |||
235 | 34,359,738,368 bits (4 gibibytes) – maximum addressable memory for the Motorola 68020 (1984) and Intel 80386 (1985) | |||
3.76×1010 bits (4.7 gigabytes) – capacity of a single-layer, single-sided DVD | ||||
236 | 68,719,476,736 bits (8 gibibytes) | |||
79 215 880 888 bits – 9.2 GiB size of Wikipedia article text compressed with bzip2 on 2013-06-05 | ||||
1011 | 100,000,000,000 bits | |||
237 | 137 438 953 472 bits (16 gibibytes). | |||
1.46×1011 bits (17 gigabytes) – capacity of a double-sided, dual-layered DVD | ||||
2.15×1011 bits (25 gigabytes) – capacity of a single-sided, single-layered 12-cm Blu-ray disc | ||||
238 | 274,877,906,944 bits (32 gibibytes) | |||
239 | 549,755,813,888 bits (64 gibibytes) | |||
1012 | terabit | 1,000,000,000,000 bits (125 gigabytes) | ||
240 | tebibit | 1.34×1012 bits – estimated capacity of the Polychaos dubium genome, the largest known genome. The storage limit for ATA-1 compliant disks introduced in 1994. | ||
1.6×1012 bits (200 gigabytes) – capacity of a hard disk that would be considered average as of 2008[update]. In 2005 a 200 GB harddisk cost 100 USD, equivalent to 156.01 USD today.[2] | ||||
241 | 2,199,023,255,552 bits (256 gibibytes) | |||
242 | 4,398,046,511,104 bits (512 gibibytes) | |||
8 000 000 000 000 bits (1000 gibibytes) In 2010 a 1 TB harddisk cost 80 USD, equivalent to 111.78 USD today.[2] | ||||
243 | tebibyte | 8,796,093,022,208 bits (1024 gibibytes) | ||
(approximately) 8.97×1012 bits – as of 2010[update], data of π to the largest number of decimal digits ever calculated (2.7×1012) | ||||
1013 | 10 000 000 000 000 bits (1.25 terabytes) – capacity of a human being's functional memory, according to Raymond Kurzweil in The Singularity Is Near, p. 126 | |||
16 435 678 019 584 bits (1.9 terabytes) – Size of all multimedia files used in English wikipedia on May 2012 | ||||
244 | 17 592 186 044 416 bits (2 tebibytes) – capacity of a hard disk that would be considered average as of 2012[update] and the maximum disk capacity using the 32-bit LBA SCSI introduced in 1987. | |||
245 | 35,184,372,088,832 bits (4 tebibytes) | |||
246 | 70,368,744,177,664 bits (8 tebibytes) | |||
1014 | 100,000,000,000,000 bits | |||
247 | 140 737 488 355 328 bits (16 tebibytes). NTFS volume capacity in Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 or earlier implementation.[4] | |||
1.5×1014 bits (18.75 terabytes) | ||||
248 | 281,474,976,710,656 bits (32 tebibytes) | |||
249 | 562,949,953,421,312 bits (64 tebibytes) | |||
1015 | petabit | 1,000,000,000,000,000 bits | ||
250 | pebibit | 1,125,899,906,842,624 bits (128 tebibytes) | ||
251 | 2,251,799,813,685,248 bits (256 tebibytes) | |||
252 | 4,503,599,627,370,496 bits (512 tebibytes) | |||
8,000,000,000,000,000 bits (1015 bytes) – one petabyte | ||||
253 | pebibyte | 9,007,199,254,740,992 bits (1024 tebibytes) | ||
1016 | 10,000,000,000,000,000 bits | |||
254 | 18,014,398,509,481,984 bits (2 pebibytes) | |||
255 | 36,028,797,018,963,968 bits (4 pebibytes) – theoretical maximum of addressable physical memory in the AMD64 architecture [citation needed] | |||
4.5×1016 bits (5.625 petabytes) – estimated hard drive space in Google's server farm as of 2004[update] [citation needed] | ||||
256 | 72,057,594,037,927,936 bits (8 pebibytes) | |||
10 petabytes (1016 bytes) – estimated approximate size of the Library of Congress's collection, including non-book materials, as of 2005.[5] Size of the Internet Archive topped 10 PB in October 2013[6] | ||||
1017 | 100,000,000,000,000,000 bits | |||
257 | 144,115,188,075,855,872 bits (16 pebibytes) | |||
2×1017 bits (25 petabytes) – Storage space of Megaupload file-hosting service at the time it was shut down in 2012[7] | ||||
258 | 288,230,376,151,711,744 bits (32 pebibytes) | |||
259 | 576,460,752,303,423,488 bits (64 pebibytes) | |||
8 ×1017, the storage capacity of the fictional Star Trek character Data | ||||
1018 | exabit | 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 bits | ||
260 | exbibit | 1 152 921 504 606 846 976 bits (128 pebibytes). The storage limit using the ATA-6 standard introduced in 2002. | ||
1.6×1018 bits (200 petabytes) – total amount of printed material in the world [citation needed] | ||||
2×1018 bits (250 petabytes) – storage space at Facebook data warehouse as of June 2013,[8] growing at a rate of 15 PB/month.[9] | ||||
261 | 2,305,843,009,213,693,952 bits (256 pebibytes) | |||
2.4×1018 bits (300 petabytes) – storage space at Facebook data warehouse as of April 2014, growing at a rate of 0.6 PB/day.[10] | ||||
262 | 4,611,686,018,427,387,904 bits (512 pebibytes) | |||
263 | exbibyte | 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 bits (1024 pebibytes) | ||
1019 | 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 bits | |||
264 | 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 bits (2 exbibytes). | |||
265 | 36,893,488,147,419,103,232 bits (4 exbibytes) | |||
50,000,000,000,000,000,000 bits (50 exabit) | ||||
266 | 73,786,976,294,838,206,464 bits (8 exbibytes) | |||
1020 | 100 000 000 000 000 000 000 bits | |||
267 | 147 573 952 589 676 412 928 bits (16 exbibytes) – maximum addressable memory using 64-bit addresses without segmentation[11] Maximum volume and filesize for ZFS filesystem. | |||
268 | 295,147,905,179,352,825,856 bits (32 exbibytes) | |||
3.5 × 1020 bits – increase in information capacity when 1 Joule of energy is added to a heat-bath at 300 K (27 °C)[12] | ||||
269 | 590,295,810,358,705,651,712 bits (64 exbibytes) | |||
1021 | zettabit | 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bits | ||
270 | zebibit | 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424 bits (128 exbibytes) | ||
271 | 2,361,183,241,434,822,606,848 bits (256 exbibytes) | |||
3.4×1021 bits (0.36 zettabytes) – amount of information that can be stored in 1 gram of DNA[13] | ||||
4.7×1021 bits (0.50 zettabytes) – amount of digitally stored information in the world as of May 2009[14] | ||||
272 | 4,722,366,482,869,645,213,696 bits (512 exbibytes) | |||
273 | zebibyte | 9,444,732,965,739,290,427,392 bits (1024 exbibytes) | ||
1022 | 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bits | |||
276 | 276 bits – Maximum volume and file size in the Unix File System (UFS) and maximum disk capacity using the 64-bit LBA SCSI standard introduced in 2000 using 512-byte blocks.[15] | |||
1023 | 1.0×1023 bits – increase in information capacity when 1 Joule of energy is added to a heat-bath at 1 K (−272.15 °C)[16] | |||
6.0×1023 bits – information content of 1 mole (12.01 g) of graphite at 25 °C; equivalent to an average of 0.996 bits per atom.[17] | ||||
1024 | yottabit | 7.3×1024 bits – information content of 1 mole (18.02 g) of liquid water at 25 °C; equivalent to an average of 12.14 bits per molecule.[18] | ||
280 | yobibit | 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 bits (128 zebibytes) | ||
1025 | 1.1×1025 bits – entropy increase of 1 mole (18.02 g) of water, on vaporizing at 100 °C at standard pressure; equivalent to an average of 18.90 bits per molecule.[19] | |||
1.5×1025 bits – information content of 1 mole (20.18 g) of neon gas at 25 °C and 1 atm; equivalent to an average of 25.39 bits per atom.[20] | ||||
2150 | 1045 | ~ 1045 bits – the number of bits required to perfectly recreate the natural matter of the average-sized U.S. adult male human being down to the quantum level on a computer is about 2×1045 bits of information (see Bekenstein bound for the basis for this calculation). | ||
1058 | ~ 1058 bits – thermodynamic entropy of the sun[21] (about 30 bits per proton, plus 10 bits per electron). | |||
1069 | ~ 1069 bits – thermodynamic entropy of the Milky Way Galaxy (counting only the stars, not the black holes within the galaxy) [citation needed] | |||
1077 | 1.5×1077 bits – information content of a one-solar-mass black hole.[22] | |||
2305 | 1090 | The information capacity of the observable universe, according to Seth Lloyd. (not including gravitation)[23] | ||
2332.1928 | 10100 | googol number | ||
23.321928·googol | 10googol | googolplex number |
For comparison, the Avogadro constant is 6.02214179(30)×1023 entities per mole, based upon the number of atoms in 12 grams of carbon-12 isotope.
In 2012, hard disks used about one million atoms to store one bit. In January 2012, IBM researchers announced they had achieved the storage of 1 bit in just 12 atoms using antiferromagnetism and a scanning tunneling microscope with iron and copper atoms. This could mean a practical jump from a 1 TB disk to a 100 TB disk.[2][24]
See also
References
- ^ a b "A special report on managing information: All too much". The Economist. 25 February 2010. Retrieved 4 March 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Cost of Hard Drive Space". 11 May 2013. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
- ^ "How much does DivX shrink a file?". 18 April 2002. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
- ^ Microsoft TechNet (28 March 2003). "How NTFS Works". Windows Server 2003 Technical Reference. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
- ^ Hickey, Thom (OCLC Chief Scientist) (21 June 2005). "Entire Library of Congress". Outgoing. Retrieved 5 May 2010.
- ^ The Internet Archive Has Now Saved a Whopping 10,000,000,000,000,000 Bytes of Data, retrieved October 2nd 2013
- ^ 25 petabyte on Megaupload. Retrieved 16 February 2012
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3]
- ^ "A brief history of virtual storage and 64-bit addressability". Retrieved 17 February 2007.
- ^ [citation needed] J K−1
- ^ http://www.tmrfindia.org/ijcsa/V2I29.pdf
- ^ "Internet data heads for 500bn gigabytes", The Guardian, 18 May 2009. Retrieved on 23 April 2010.
- ^ "Working Draft T10, American National Standard Project 1417-D, Revision 4, 28 July 2001" (PDF). o3one.org. 8 January 2002. p. 72. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
- ^ 1 J K−1. Equivalent to 1/(k ln 2) bits, where k is Boltzmann's constant
- ^ Equivalent to 5.74 J K−1. Standard molar entropy of graphite.
- ^ Equivalent to 69.95 J K−1. Standard molar entropy of water.
- ^ Equivalent to 108.9 J K−1
- ^ Equivalent to 146.33 J K−1. Standard molar entropy of neon. An experimental value, see [4] for a theoretical calculation.
- ^ Given as 1042 erg K−1 in Bekenstein (1973), Black Holes and Entropy, Physical Review D 7 2338
- ^ Entropy = in nats, with for a Schwarzschild black hole. 1 nat = 1/ln(2) bits. See Jacob D. Bekenstein (2008), Bekenstein-Hawking entropy, Scholarpedia.
- ^ Seth Lloyd (2002), Computational capacity of the universe, Physical Review Letters 88 (23):237901.
- ^ "IBM Smashes Moore's Law, Cuts Bit Size to 12 Atoms". 12 January 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2013.