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A terabyte is a large storage capacity for hard disk drives, with 1,000 or 1,024 gigabytes depending on the measurement standard used. The average computer capacity has increased from 20MB in the late 1980s to hundreds of gigabytes in 2005. RAID arrays can exceed 1 terabyte, and storage space is measured in bytes. The petabyte, made up of 1,024 terabytes, is the next level of storage capacity.
A terabyte (TB) is a large data storage capacity allocation most often applied to hard disk drives. Hard disk drives are essential to computer systems, storing the operating system, programs, files and data needed to run the computer. Depending on the type of storage being measured, this can be 1,000 gigabytes (GB) or 1,024 GB; disk memory is usually measured as the former, while processor memory as the latter.
In the late 1980s, the average home computer system had a single hard drive with a capacity of about 20 megabytes (MB). In the mid-1990s, the average capacity increased to around 80MB. Just a few years later, operating systems alone required more space than this, while several hundred megabytes represented an average storage capacity. As of 2005, computer buyers are thinking in terms of hundreds of gigabytes, and that’s already giving way to even more storage space.
With the advent of graphics, video and music files, home studios, paint and photo programs, and advanced desktop publishing applications, storage appears to be as wise an investment as real estate. The cost of hard drives has dropped dramatically over the years and continues to do so, even as speed and reliability increase. As the price drops, more and more people are installing RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) to provide not only storage space, but also redundancy, error control, improved performance, and backup. A RAID is a series of hard drives that work together as one storage unit. Today, a RAID array can easily exceed the 1 terabyte mark.
Storage space is measured in bytes, which are made up of 8 bits of data. However, when measuring the number of bytes in a kilobyte (KB) or larger unit, there can be differences depending on the measurement standard used. Processor or virtual storage is typically measured using binary:
1,024 megabyte = 1 gigabyte
1,024 gigabyte = 1 terabyte
1,048,576 (1,0242) megabyte = 1 terabyte
At the other extreme, starting with the smallest units of data, it takes an octet, or eight bits, to make a byte. Bits are binary digits of 1 or 0 (one or zero). A string of eight makes up the single byte that represents a single character, such as a letter or punctuation mark. Over a trillion bytes, or exactly 1,099,511,627,776 bytes, make up one terabyte, or more than eight trillion bits!
Disk storage space is usually measured using the International System of Units (SI). With this standard, 8 bits still equal 1 byte, but 1,000 bytes make up one KB. This means that a 1 terabyte hard drive holds 1,000 GB or 1012 bytes.
While the terabyte represents a huge amount of storage space, the petabyte is just waiting beyond that. The petabyte is made up of 1,024 (or 1,000) terabytes.
Tera means monster in Greek, while the word byte was coined in 1956 by Werner Buchholz.
