Orders of magnitude (data)

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This is a list of orders of magnitude for data (or information), measured in bits. This article assumes a descriptive attitude towards terminology, reflecting actual usage by the speakers of the language. That means three things:

  1. A group of 8 bits in a computer is called a byte. A byte is the most common unit of measurement for computer architectures (megabytes, mebibytes, gigabytes, gibibytes, et cetera).
  2. In architectures that are 16-bit or 32-bit, which operate on 2 or 4 bytes per clock cycle, that chunk of data is sometimes called a word, although such usage is typically limited to programmers and engineers.
  3. The decimal prefixes kilo, mega etc. are strictly powers of 10. The powers of 2 are the binary prefixes kibi, mebi etc.

Accordingly, 8192 bits of data are a kibibyte and 8000 bits are a kilobyte.

  1. 1 kB (kilobyte) = 8000 bits
  2. 1 KiB (kibibyte) = 8192 bits
  3. Therefore 1 KiB = 1.024 Byte
Orders of magnitude (data)
Binary Decimal Item
Factor Term Factor Term
20 bit 100 bit 1 bit – 0 or 1, false or true
21   2 bits – a crumb (rarely used term)
3 bits – the size of an octal digit
22 nibble
(also
spelled
nybble)		 4 bits – (aka "nibble" or "semioctet", rarely used) the size of a hexadecimal digit
5 bits – the size of code points in the Baudot code, used in telex communication
6 bits – the size of code points in the Braille code, a tactile writing system for the blind
7 bits – the size of code points in the ASCII character set
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).
– the "word size" (instruction length) for 8-bit console systems including: Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System
101 decabit 10 bits

– minimum length to store a single group of 3 decimal digits
– minimum bit length to store a single byte with error-correcting memory
– minimum frame length to transmit a single byte with asynchronous serial protocols
12 bits – wordlength of the PDP-8 of Digital Equipment Corporation (built from 1965 -1990)
24   16 bits

– in many programming languages, the size of an integer capable of holding 65,536 different values
– Equivalent to 1 "word" on 16-bit computers (IBM PC)
– the "word size" (instruction length) for 16-bit console systems including: Super Nintendo, Mattel Intellivision
25   32 bits (4 bytes)

– size of an integer capable of holding 4,294,967,296 different values
– size of an IEEE 754 single-precision floating point number
– size of addresses in IPv4, the current Internet protocol
– Equivalent to 1 "word" on 32-bit computers (Commodore Amiga, Apple Macintosh, Pentium-based PC).
– the "word size" (instruction length) for various console systems including: Sega Genesis, PlayStation, GameCube, Xbox, Wii
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
– size of an IEEE 754 double-precision floating point number
– Equivalent to 1 "word" on 64-bit computers (x86-64 PCs and Macintoshes).
– the "word size" (instruction length) for recent console systems including: Nintendo 64, PlayStation 2, Playstation 3, Xbox 360
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
102 hectobit 100 bits
27   128 bits (16 bytes)

– size of addresses in IPv6, the emerging Internet protocol
– minimum cipher strength of the Rijndael and AES encryption standards, and of the widely used MD5 cryptographic message digest algorithm
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
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)
1288 bits – approximate maximum capacity of a standard magnetic stripe card
211   2048 bits (256 bytes)
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)
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   15,350 bits – one screen of data displayed on an 8-bit monochrome text console (80x24)
214   16,384 bits (2 kibibytes)
20,000 bits – approximate amount of information on a sheet of single-spaced typewritten paper
215   32,768 bits (4 kibibytes)
216   65,536 bits (8 kibibytes)
105   100,000 bits
217   131,072 bits (16 kibibytes)
150 kilobits – approximate size of this article as of 20 April 2007
218   262,144 bits (32 kibibytes)
219   524,288 bits (64 kibibytes)
106 megabit 1,000,000 bits
220 mebibit 1,048,576 bits (128 kibibytes)
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)
8,343,400 bits – one "typical" sized photograph with reasonably good quality (1024 × 768 pixels).
223 mebibyte 8,388,608 bits (1024 kibibytes)
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 megabits – amount of data in a typical color slide
32,582,657 bits – size of the largest known Mersenne prime: All of its bits are 1.
225   33,554,432 bits (4 mebibytes)
55,296,000 bits – capacity of a high-resolution computer monitor as of 2007, 1920 × 1200 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 (32 mebibytes)
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
5.89×109 bits (702 mebibytes) – capacity of a large regular compact disc
6.4×109 bits – capacity of the human genome, 3.2×109 base pairs (Each pair encodes two bits of data.)
233 gibibyte 8,589,934,592 bits (1024 mebibytes)
1010   10,000,000,000 bits
234   17,179,869,184 bits (2 gibibytes)
2.16×1010 bits (2.7 gigabytes) – size of the English Wikipedia without images (compressed it is 1.1 gibibytes)
235   34,359,738,368 bits (4 gibibytes)
4.04×1010 bits (4.7 gigabytes) – capacity of a single-layer, single-sided DVD
236   68,719,476,736 bits (8 gibibytes)
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) – approximate size of all Wikimedia projects in all languages[when?].
240 tebibit 1,099,511,627,776 bits (128 gibibytes) more than 137 gigabytes
1.6×1012 bits (200 gigabytes) – capacity of a hard disk that would be considered moderately large as of 2004
241   2,199,023,255,552 bits (256 gibibytes)
(approximately) 4.12×1012 bits – as of 2002, data of π to the largest number of digits ever calculated (1.24×1012)
242   4,398,046,511,104 bits (512 gibibytes)
243 tebibyte 8,796,093,022,208 bits (1024 gibibytes)
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
244   17,592,186,044,416 bits (2 tebibytes)
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)
1.5×1014 bits (18.75 terabytes) – amount of text in the Library of Congress, if it were all digitized
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)
2.4×1015 bits (300 terabytes) – size of the Internet Archive in 2004
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)
4.5×1016 bits (5.625 petabytes) – estimated hard drive space in Google's server farm in 2004
256   72,057,594,037,927,936 bits (8 pebibytes)
1017   100,000,000,000,000,000 bits
257   144,115,188,075,855,872 bits (16 pebibytes)
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)
1.6×1018 bits (200 petabytes) – total amount of printed material in the world
261   2,305,843,009,213,693,952 bits (256 pebibytes)
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)
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)
268   295,147,905,179,352,825,856 bits (32 exbibytes)
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)
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
1.8×1022 bits (2.25 zettabytes) – amount of information which can be stored in 1 gram of DNA

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