Yottabyte

For the software company Yottabyte, see Yottabyte LLC.

Multiple-byte units
Decimal Value Metric 1000 kB kilobyte 10002 MB megabyte 10003 GB gigabyte 10004 TB terabyte 10005 PB petabyte 10006 EB exabyte 10007 ZB zettabyte 10008 YB yottabyte 10009 RB ronnabyte 100010 QB quettabyte	Binary Value IEC Memory 1024 KiB kibibyte KB kilobyte 10242 MiB mebibyte MB megabyte 10243 GiB gibibyte GB gigabyte 10244 TiB tebibyte TB terabyte 10245 PiB pebibyte – 10246 EiB exbibyte – 10247 ZiB zebibyte – 10248 YiB yobibyte – 10249 – – 102410 – –
Orders of magnitude of data

The yottabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix yotta indicates multiplication by the eighth power of 1000 or 10²⁴ in the International System of Units (SI), and therefore one yottabyte is one septillion (one long scale quadrillion) bytes. The unit symbol for the yottabyte is YB.

1 YB = 1000⁸bytes = 10²⁴bytes = 1000000000000000000000000bytes = 1000zettabytes = 1trillionterabytes

A related unit, the yobibyte (YiB), using a binary prefix, is equal to 1024⁸bytes (approximately 1.209 YB).

Examples

In 2010, it was estimated that storing a yottabyte on terabyte-size disk drives would require one billion city block-size data-centers, as big as the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined. By late 2016 memory density had increased to the point where a yottabyte could be stored on SD cards occupying roughly twice the size of the Hindenburg.

With recently demonstrated technology using DNA computing for storage, one yottabyte of capacity would require a volume between 0.003 and 1 cubic meter, depending on number of redundant backup copies desired and the storage density: "Our genetic code packs billions of gigabytes into a single gram". DNA is much more advanced technology than microSDXC cards (for this application) and accompanied by uncertain costs, but this suggests potential information density.

See also

• Natural computing
• DNA computing