A related unit, the zebibyte (ZiB), using a binary prefix, is equal to 10247 (=270) bytes (approximately 1.181 ZB).
Usage examples
GUID Partition Table (GPT) allows for a maximum disk and partition size of 7.02 zettabytes, or 5.946 zebibytes, when using 512-byte sectors.[6][7]
ZFS allows for a maximum storage capacity of about 256 quadrillion zettabytes.[8]
In the film Enthiran (2010), Chitti was making a clone of himself, and specified a memory space of 1 zettabyte for his clone.
Comparisons for scale
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(July 2018)
Between 1986 and 2007, the world's technological capacity to receive information through one-way broadcast networks was 0.432 zettabytes of optimally compressed information in 1986, 0.715 ZB in 1993, 1.2 ZB in 2000, and 1.9 (optimally compressed) ZB in 2007, this being the informational equivalent to every person on Earth receiving 174 newspapers per day.[9][10]
In 2003, Mark Liberman had calculated the storage requirements for all human speech ever spoken at 42 zettabytes if digitized as 16 kHz 16-bit audio. He did this in response to a popular[11][12][13] expression that states "all words ever spoken by human beings" could be stored in approximately 5 exabytes of data. Liberman confessed that "maybe the authors [of the exabyte estimate] were thinking about text".[14]
In 2007, humankind successfully sent 1.9 zettabytes of information through broadcast technology such as televisions and GPS per research from the University of Southern California.[15]
In 2008, Americans alone consumed 3.6 zettabytes of information [clarification needed] per a 2009 study from the University of California, San Diego.[16]
As of 2009[update], the entire World Wide Web was estimated to contain close to 500 exabytes, or half a zettabyte.[17]
In 2011 the International Data Corporation expected the "total amount of global data" to grow to 2.7 zettabytes during 2012, an increase of 48% from 2011.[18]
In 2012, Americans accessed already 6.9 zettabytes of data per a 2013 study.[19]
In 2013, one expert estimated that the "amount of data generated worldwide" would reach 4 zettabytes by the end of the year.[20]
In 2018, International Data Corporation (IDC) estimated the global datasphere has reached 33 zettabytes and is expected to reach 175 zettabytes by 2025.[21]
^Roderick W. Smith (2012-07-03). "Make the most of large drives with GPT and Linux". IBM. Retrieved 2013-05-29. Disk pointers are 64 bits in size, meaning that GPT can handle disks of up to 512 x 264 bytes (8 zebibytes, or 8.6 billion TiB), assuming 512-byte sectors.
