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Revision as of 00:18, 15 November 2006 editOmegatron (talk | contribs)Administrators35,798 edits Gigabytes vs gigabits: «"Gigabytes" → "gigabytes", "Gigabit" → "gigabit"» not capitalized← Previous edit Latest revision as of 11:51, 13 January 2025 edit undoDondervogel 2 (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users17,507 editsm 'a lawsuit ... and other claims' is pluralTag: Undo 
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{{Short description|Unit of digital information}}
{{Otheruses4|the unit of measurement|the computer hardware manufacturer|Gigabyte Technology}}
{{About|a multiple of bytes|the binary unit of measurement|gibibyte|the company|Gigabyte Technology|other uses|Gigabyte (disambiguation)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}}
] has a capacity of 500 gigabytes (GB) of data (i.e., 500 billion bytes).]]
{{Quantities of bytes}} {{Quantities of bytes}}
A '''gigabyte''' (derived from the ] '']-'') is a unit of ] or ] equal to one ] (that is, a thousand million) ]s.
<!-- in some countries a billion is a million million -->


The '''gigabyte''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɡ|ɪ|ɡ|ə|b|aɪ|t|,_|ˈ|dʒ|ɪ|ɡ|ə|b|aɪ|t}})<ref>The prefix '']'' may be pronounced two ways.
== Definition ==
* {{cite Dictionary.com|gigabyte}}
* {{cite Merriam-Webster|gigabyte}}</ref> is a multiple of the unit ] for digital information. The ] '']'' means 10<sup>9</sup> in the ] (SI). Therefore, one gigabyte is one billion bytes. The unit symbol for the gigabyte is '''GB'''.


This definition is used in all contexts of science (especially ]), ], ], and many areas of ], including storage capacities of ], ]s, and ], as well as ] speeds. The term is also used in some fields of computer science and information technology to denote {{gaps|1|073|741|824}} (1024<sup>3</sup> or 2<sup>30</sup>) bytes, however, particularly for sizes of ]. Thus, some usage of ''gigabyte'' has been ambiguous. To resolve this difficulty, ] clarifies that a ''gigabyte'' (GB) is 10<sup>9</sup> bytes and specifies the term ''gibibyte'' (GiB) to denote 2<sup>30</sup> bytes. These differences are still readily seen, for example, when a 400&nbsp;GB drive's capacity is displayed by ] as 372&nbsp;GB instead of 372&nbsp;GiB. Analogously, a memory module that is labeled as having the size "{{gaps|1|GB}}" has one ] ({{gaps|1|GiB}}) of storage capacity.
There are two slightly different definitions of the size of a gigabyte in use:


In response to litigation over whether the makers of electronic storage devices must conform to Microsoft Windows' use of a binary definition of "GB" instead of the metric/decimal definition, the ] rejected that argument, ruling that "the U.S. Congress has deemed the decimal definition of gigabyte to be the 'preferred' one for the purposes of 'U.S. trade and commerce.{{'"}}<ref name="Order Granting Motion to Dismiss"/><ref>See also Dinan v. SanDisk LLC, No. 20-15287 (9th Cir. Feb. 11, 2021) https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16989791406584358656</ref>
* 1,000,000,000 bytes or 10<sup>9</sup> bytes is the decimal definition used in ]s (such as network speeds) and most ] manufacturers (such as ]s and ]). This usage is compatible with ]. Quotes from Seagate: "The storage industry standard is to display capacity in decimal"<ref></ref>, and "One gigabyte, or GB, equals one billion bytes when referring to hard drive capacity"<ref name="Seagate"></ref>, and similar quotes are found on the websites of other storage manufacturers.
* 1,073,741,824 bytes, equal to 1024<sup>3</sup>, or 2<sup>30</sup> bytes. This is the definition used for ] sizes, and most often used in ], ], and most aspects of computer ]s. The ] recommends that this unit should instead be called a ] (abbreviated '''GiB'''), as it conflicts with SI units used for bus speeds and the like. HP states that Microsoft normally adheres to this definition <ref name="HP"></ref>


==Definition==
== About its name ==
The term ''gigabyte'' has a standard definition of 1000<sup>3</sup> bytes, as well as a discouraged<ref name="Order Granting Motion to Dismiss">{{cite web |url=https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/flashdrives.pdf |title=Order Granting Motion to Dismiss |publisher=] |access-date = 2020-01-24}}</ref> meaning of 1024<sup>3</sup> bytes. The latter binary usage originated as compromise technical jargon for byte ] that needed to be expressed in a power of 2, but lacked a convenient name. As 1024 (2<sup>10</sup>) is approximately 1000 (10<sup>3</sup>), roughly corresponding to SI multiples, it was used for binary multiples as well.


In 1998 the ] (IEC) published standards for ]es, requiring that the gigabyte strictly denote 1000<sup>3</sup> ] and ] denote 1024<sup>3</sup> bytes. By the end of 2007, the IEC Standard had been adopted by the ], ], and ], and in 2009 it was incorporated in the ]. Nevertheless, the term gigabyte continues to be widely used with the following two different meanings:
It is commonly abbreviated '''GB''' in writing (not to be confused with '''Gb''', which is used for ])


===Base 10 (decimal)===
Gigabyte is often informally abbreviated to '''gig''', as in "This is a three hundred gig ]".
* 1 GB = {{gaps|1|000|000|000}} bytes (= 1000<sup>3</sup> B = 10<sup>9</sup> B)
Based on powers of 10, this definition uses the prefix giga- as defined in the ] (SI). This is the recommended definition by the ] (IEC).<ref name="NIST">http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html Prefixes for binary multiples</ref> This definition is used in ] contexts and most ], particularly ]s, ]-based storage,<ref name="sandisk_gigabyte"> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513155718/http://apac.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog%281349%29-SanDisk_Extreme_Ducati_Edition_USB_Flash_Drive.aspx |date=13 May 2008 }} "Note: 1 megabyte (MB) = 1 million bytes; 1 gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes."</ref><ref name="kingston_gigabyte"> "Megabyte (MB) = 1,000,000 bytes; 1 Gigabyte (GB) = 1,000,000,000 bytes; 1TB = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes"</ref> and ]s, and is also consistent with the other uses of the ] in computing, such as ] or ]. The file manager of ] version 10.6 and later versions are a notable example of this usage in software, which report files sizes in decimal units.<ref name="Apple Inc">{{cite web|url=http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2419 |title=How Mac OS X reports drive capacity |publisher=Apple Inc |date=2009-08-27 |access-date=2009-10-16}}</ref>


===Base 2 (binary)===
In ] the initial ] of '']'' can be pronounced with a soft G as in ''gene'', or with a hard G as in ''giggle''. The latter hard G pronunciation has become more common.
* 1 GiB = {{gaps|1|073|741|824}} bytes (= 1024<sup>3</sup> B = 2<sup>30</sup> B).
The binary definition uses powers of the base 2, as does the architectural principle of ] ]s.
This usage is widely promulgated by some ]s, such as ] in reference to ] (e.g., ]). This definition is synonymous with the unambiguous unit ].


==Consumer confusion==
== Gigabytes vs gigabits ==
Since the first disk drive, the ], disk drive manufacturers expressed ] capacities using decimal prefixes. With the advent of gigabyte-range drive capacities, manufacturers labelled many consumer ], ] and ] capacities in certain size classes expressed in decimal gigabytes, such as "500 GB". The exact capacity of a given drive model is usually slightly larger than the class designation. Practically all manufacturers of hard disk drives and flash-memory disk devices<ref name="sandisk_gigabyte"/><ref name="kingston_gigabyte"/> continue to define one gigabyte as {{gaps|1|000|000|000|bytes}}, which is displayed on the packaging. Some operating systems such as ]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201402|title=How OS X and iOS report storage capacity - Apple Support|website=support.apple.com|access-date=2016-06-29}}</ref> and ],<ref>{{cite web |title=UnitsPolicy |url=https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UnitsPolicy |website=Ubuntu Wiki |publisher=Ubuntu |access-date=9 January 2022 |archive-date=18 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211118114902/https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UnitsPolicy |url-status=live }}</ref> and ]<ref>{{cite web |title=ConsistentUnitPrefixes |url=https://wiki.debian.org/ConsistentUnitPrefixes |website=Debian Wiki |access-date=9 January 2022 |archive-date=3 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211203075715/https://wiki.debian.org/ConsistentUnitPrefixes |url-status=live }}</ref> express hard drive capacity or file size using decimal multipliers, while others such as ] report size using binary multipliers. This discrepancy causes confusion, as a disk with an advertised capacity of, for example, {{nowrap|400 GB}} (meaning {{gaps|400|000|000|000|bytes}}, equal to 372&nbsp;GiB) might be reported by the operating system as "{{nowrap|372 GB}}".


For ], the ] use '''IEEE 100''' nomenclature which quote the gigabyte as {{gaps|1|073|741|824|bytes}} (2<sup>30</sup> bytes).<ref>{{Cite journal
In conventional modern usage, a byte is 8 bits. One gigabyte is equivalent to eight gigabits.
| last = JEDEC Solid State Technology Association
| title = Terms, Definitions, and Letter Symbols for Microcomputers, Microprocessors, and Memory Integrated Circuits
| journal = Jesd 100B.01
| date = December 2002
| url = http://www.jedec.org/download/search/JESD100B01.pdf
}}</ref>


The difference between units based on decimal and binary prefixes increases as a ] (linear-log) function—for example, the decimal kilobyte value is nearly 98% of the kibibyte, a ] is under 96% of a mebibyte, and a gigabyte is just over 93% of a gibibyte value. This means that a 300&nbsp;GB (279&nbsp;GiB) hard disk might be indicated variously as "300 GB", "279&nbsp;GB" or "279 GiB", depending on the operating system. As storage sizes increase and larger units are used, these differences become more pronounced.
{| class=wikitable style="font-size: 90%; text-align: center"
! !! Abbreviation !! No. of ]s !! Usage
|-
! gigabytes
|GB (Note: big "B") ||1000 ||Computer storage (eg 500&nbsp;GB hard disk)
|-
! gigabit
|Gb (Note: small "b") ||125 ||Network throughput (eg 1&nbsp;] data transfer rate)
|}


===US lawsuits===
== Gigabytes in use ==
A lawsuit decided in 2019 that arose from alleged breach of contract and other claims over the binary and decimal definitions used for "gigabyte" have ended in favour of the manufacturers, with courts holding that the legal definition of gigabyte or GB is 1&nbsp;GB = 1,000,000,000 (10<sup>9</sup>) bytes (the decimal definition). Specifically, the courts held that "the U.S. Congress has deemed the decimal definition of gigabyte to be the 'preferred' one for the purposes of 'U.S. trade and commerce' .... The California Legislature has likewise adopted the decimal system for all 'transactions in this state'."<ref name="Order Granting Motion to Dismiss"/>
=== Facts ===


Earlier lawsuits had ended in settlement with no court ruling on the question, such as a lawsuit against drive manufacturer ].<ref name="WesternDigital">{{cite web
* ], most consumer ]s are defined by their gigabyte-range capacities. The true capacity is usually some number above or below the class designation. Although most hard disk manufacturers' definition of GB is 1,000,000,000 bytes (however, ] has a natural inclination towards units that are powers of 2), most computer operating systems use the 1,073,741,824 byte definition. This distinction can be a cause of confusion, especially for people from a non-technical background, as a hard disk with a capacity of 1,000,000,000 bytes would have a reported capacity of only 0.93&nbsp;GB.
| last = Mook
| first = Nate
| date = 2006-06-28
| url = http://www.betanews.com/article/Western-Digital-Settles-Capacity-Suit/1151510648
| title = Western Digital Settles Capacity Suit
| publisher = betanews
| access-date = 2009-03-30
}}</ref><ref name="Baskin-2006-02-01">{{cite web
| last = Baskin
| first = Scott D.
| date = 2006-02-01
| url = http://www.wdc.com/settlement/docs/document20.htm
| title = Defendant Western Digital Corporation's Brief in Support of Plaintiff's Motion for Preliminary Approval
| work = Orin Safier v. Western Digital Corporation
| publisher = ]
| access-date = 2009-03-30
}}</ref> Western Digital settled the challenge and added explicit disclaimers to products that the usable capacity may differ from the advertised capacity.<ref name="WesternDigital"/>
Seagate was sued on similar grounds and also settled.<ref name="WesternDigital"/><ref name="Seagate">{{cite news
| last = Judge
| first = Peter
| date = 2007-10-26
| url = https://www.zdnet.com/article/seagate-pays-out-over-gigabyte-definition/
| title = Seagate pays out over gigabyte definition
| work = ZDNet
| access-date = 2014-09-16
}}</ref>


===Other contexts===
=== Gigabytes in different products ===
Because of their physical design, the capacity of modern computer random-access memory devices, such as ] modules, is always a multiple of a power of 1024. It is thus convenient to use prefixes denoting powers of 1024, known as ], in describing them. For example, a memory capacity of {{gaps|1|073|741|824|bytes}} (1024<sup>3</sup> B) is conveniently expressed as 1&nbsp;] rather than as 1.074&nbsp;GB. The former specification is, however, often quoted as "1&nbsp;GB" when applied to random-access memory.<ref name=TS-GiB>{{cite web|last1=Percival|first1=Colin|title=Why is 1 GB equal to 10^9 bytes instead of 2^30?|url=http://www.tarsnap.com/GB-why.html|publisher=tarsnap.com|access-date=1 November 2015}}</ref>


Software allocates memory in varying degrees of granularity as needed to fulfill data structure requirements and binary multiples are usually not required. Other computer capacities and rates, like ] hardware size, ], ]s, ], etc., do not depend on an inherent ], and are usually presented in decimal units. For example, the manufacturer of a "300&nbsp;GB" hard drive is claiming a capacity of {{gaps|300|000|000|000|bytes}}, not 300&nbsp;×&nbsp;1024<sup>3</sup> (which would be {{gaps|322|122|547|200}}) bytes.
* A ] format disc is capable of storing 4.7 gigabytes, or roughly 4.38 ]s. A DVD-9 is capable of storing 8.5 gigabytes, or roughly 7.92 ]s.
* One gigabyte is roughly equal to 18 hours of ] music (at 128 kbit/s).
* One gigabyte is roughly equivalent to 11 hours, 40 minutes of ] video (at 450x370).
* Most ] game consoles have game discs that are around 1&nbsp;GB or more: ] (1.1&nbsp;GB), ] (1.5&nbsp;GB), ] (8.5&nbsp;GB), and ] (8.5&nbsp;GB)
* The ] contains 0.791175 GB of data (the 3.1647{{e|9}} ] represented as 2-]s).


==Examples of gigabyte-sized storage==
== See also ==
<!-- Only include examples of approximately 1 GB, and only cases where the example is actually available, not announcements of future uses -->
* One hour of ] video at 2.2&nbsp;]/s is approximately 1&nbsp;GB.
* Seven minutes of ] video at 19.39&nbsp;Mbit/s is approximately 1&nbsp;GB.
* 114 minutes of uncompressed ] audio at 1.4&nbsp;Mbit/s is approximately 1&nbsp;GB.
* A single-layer ] disc can hold about 4.7&nbsp;GB.
* A dual-layered ] disc can hold about 8.5&nbsp;GB.
* A single-layer ] can hold about 25&nbsp;GB.
* The largest ] cartridge available on the market holds about 32&nbsp;GB.
* A dual-layered ] can hold about 50&nbsp;GB.
* A triple-layered ] can hold about 100&nbsp;GB.


==Unicode character==
* ]
The "gigabyte" symbol is encoded by ] at code point {{unichar|3387|Square GB}}.<ref name="Unicode-U3300">{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U3300.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010603001437/http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U3300.pdf |archive-date=2001-06-03 |url-status=live |access-date=24 May 2019 |title=The Unicode Standard 12.0 – CJK Compatibility ❰ Range: 3300—33FF ❱ |author=Unicode Consortium |author-link=Unicode Consortium |date=2019 |website=Unicode.org}}</ref>
* ]

==See also==
* ]
* ] * ]
* ]


== Notes == ==References==
{{Reflist}}


==External links==
<!--See http://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Footnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the <ref(erences/)> tags-->
* http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html
<references/>
* http://www.quinion.com/words/turnsofphrase/tp-kib1.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040612044148/http://www.quinion.com/words/turnsofphrase/tp-kib1.htm |date=12 June 2004 }}
* https://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/techbeat/tb9903.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160820141603/http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/techbeat/tb9903.htm |date=20 August 2016 }}


{{Computer Storage Volumes}}
== External links ==

* http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html
* http://www.iec.ch/zone/si/si_bytes.htm
* http://www.quinion.com/words/turnsofphrase/tp-kib1.htm
* http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/techbeat/tb9903.htm


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Latest revision as of 11:51, 13 January 2025

Unit of digital information This article is about a multiple of bytes. For the binary unit of measurement, see gibibyte. For the company, see Gigabyte Technology. For other uses, see Gigabyte (disambiguation).

This 2.5-inch hard drive has a capacity of 500 gigabytes (GB) of data (i.e., 500 billion bytes).
Multiple-byte units
Decimal
Value Metric
1000 kB kilobyte
1000 MB megabyte
1000 GB gigabyte
1000 TB terabyte
1000 PB petabyte
1000 EB exabyte
1000 ZB zettabyte
1000 YB yottabyte
1000 RB ronnabyte
1000 QB quettabyte
Binary
Value IEC Memory
1024 KiB kibibyte KB kilobyte
1024 MiB mebibyte MB megabyte
1024 GiB gibibyte GB gigabyte
1024 TiB tebibyte TB terabyte
1024 PiB pebibyte
1024 EiB exbibyte
1024 ZiB zebibyte
1024 YiB yobibyte
Orders of magnitude of data

The gigabyte (/ˈɡɪɡəbaɪt, ˈdʒɪɡəbaɪt/) is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix giga means 10 in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one gigabyte is one billion bytes. The unit symbol for the gigabyte is GB.

This definition is used in all contexts of science (especially data science), engineering, business, and many areas of computing, including storage capacities of hard drives, solid-state drives, and tapes, as well as data transmission speeds. The term is also used in some fields of computer science and information technology to denote 1073741824 (1024 or 2) bytes, however, particularly for sizes of RAM. Thus, some usage of gigabyte has been ambiguous. To resolve this difficulty, IEC 80000-13 clarifies that a gigabyte (GB) is 10 bytes and specifies the term gibibyte (GiB) to denote 2 bytes. These differences are still readily seen, for example, when a 400 GB drive's capacity is displayed by Microsoft Windows as 372 GB instead of 372 GiB. Analogously, a memory module that is labeled as having the size "1GB" has one gibibyte (1GiB) of storage capacity.

In response to litigation over whether the makers of electronic storage devices must conform to Microsoft Windows' use of a binary definition of "GB" instead of the metric/decimal definition, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California rejected that argument, ruling that "the U.S. Congress has deemed the decimal definition of gigabyte to be the 'preferred' one for the purposes of 'U.S. trade and commerce.'"

Definition

The term gigabyte has a standard definition of 1000 bytes, as well as a discouraged meaning of 1024 bytes. The latter binary usage originated as compromise technical jargon for byte multiples that needed to be expressed in a power of 2, but lacked a convenient name. As 1024 (2) is approximately 1000 (10), roughly corresponding to SI multiples, it was used for binary multiples as well.

In 1998 the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) published standards for binary prefixes, requiring that the gigabyte strictly denote 1000 bytes and gibibyte denote 1024 bytes. By the end of 2007, the IEC Standard had been adopted by the IEEE, EU, and NIST, and in 2009 it was incorporated in the International System of Quantities. Nevertheless, the term gigabyte continues to be widely used with the following two different meanings:

Base 10 (decimal)

  • 1 GB = 1000000000 bytes (= 1000 B = 10 B)

Based on powers of 10, this definition uses the prefix giga- as defined in the International System of Units (SI). This is the recommended definition by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). This definition is used in networking contexts and most storage media, particularly hard drives, flash-based storage, and DVDs, and is also consistent with the other uses of the SI prefix in computing, such as CPU clock speeds or measures of performance. The file manager of Mac OS X version 10.6 and later versions are a notable example of this usage in software, which report files sizes in decimal units.

Base 2 (binary)

  • 1 GiB = 1073741824 bytes (= 1024 B = 2 B).

The binary definition uses powers of the base 2, as does the architectural principle of binary computers. This usage is widely promulgated by some operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows in reference to computer memory (e.g., RAM). This definition is synonymous with the unambiguous unit gibibyte.

Consumer confusion

Since the first disk drive, the IBM 350, disk drive manufacturers expressed hard drive capacities using decimal prefixes. With the advent of gigabyte-range drive capacities, manufacturers labelled many consumer hard drive, solid-state drive and USB flash drive capacities in certain size classes expressed in decimal gigabytes, such as "500 GB". The exact capacity of a given drive model is usually slightly larger than the class designation. Practically all manufacturers of hard disk drives and flash-memory disk devices continue to define one gigabyte as 1000000000bytes, which is displayed on the packaging. Some operating systems such as Mac OS X and Ubuntu, and Debian express hard drive capacity or file size using decimal multipliers, while others such as Microsoft Windows report size using binary multipliers. This discrepancy causes confusion, as a disk with an advertised capacity of, for example, 400 GB (meaning 400000000000bytes, equal to 372 GiB) might be reported by the operating system as "372 GB".

For RAM, the JEDEC memory standards use IEEE 100 nomenclature which quote the gigabyte as 1073741824bytes (2 bytes).

The difference between units based on decimal and binary prefixes increases as a semi-logarithmic (linear-log) function—for example, the decimal kilobyte value is nearly 98% of the kibibyte, a megabyte is under 96% of a mebibyte, and a gigabyte is just over 93% of a gibibyte value. This means that a 300 GB (279 GiB) hard disk might be indicated variously as "300 GB", "279 GB" or "279 GiB", depending on the operating system. As storage sizes increase and larger units are used, these differences become more pronounced.

US lawsuits

A lawsuit decided in 2019 that arose from alleged breach of contract and other claims over the binary and decimal definitions used for "gigabyte" have ended in favour of the manufacturers, with courts holding that the legal definition of gigabyte or GB is 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 (10) bytes (the decimal definition). Specifically, the courts held that "the U.S. Congress has deemed the decimal definition of gigabyte to be the 'preferred' one for the purposes of 'U.S. trade and commerce' .... The California Legislature has likewise adopted the decimal system for all 'transactions in this state'."

Earlier lawsuits had ended in settlement with no court ruling on the question, such as a lawsuit against drive manufacturer Western Digital. Western Digital settled the challenge and added explicit disclaimers to products that the usable capacity may differ from the advertised capacity. Seagate was sued on similar grounds and also settled.

Other contexts

Because of their physical design, the capacity of modern computer random-access memory devices, such as DIMM modules, is always a multiple of a power of 1024. It is thus convenient to use prefixes denoting powers of 1024, known as binary prefixes, in describing them. For example, a memory capacity of 1073741824bytes (1024 B) is conveniently expressed as 1 GiB rather than as 1.074 GB. The former specification is, however, often quoted as "1 GB" when applied to random-access memory.

Software allocates memory in varying degrees of granularity as needed to fulfill data structure requirements and binary multiples are usually not required. Other computer capacities and rates, like storage hardware size, data transfer rates, clock speeds, operations per second, etc., do not depend on an inherent base, and are usually presented in decimal units. For example, the manufacturer of a "300 GB" hard drive is claiming a capacity of 300000000000bytes, not 300 × 1024 (which would be 322122547200) bytes.

Examples of gigabyte-sized storage

  • One hour of SDTV video at 2.2 Mbit/s is approximately 1 GB.
  • Seven minutes of HDTV video at 19.39 Mbit/s is approximately 1 GB.
  • 114 minutes of uncompressed CD-quality audio at 1.4 Mbit/s is approximately 1 GB.
  • A single-layer DVD+R disc can hold about 4.7 GB.
  • A dual-layered DVD+R disc can hold about 8.5 GB.
  • A single-layer Blu-ray can hold about 25 GB.
  • The largest Nintendo Switch cartridge available on the market holds about 32 GB.
  • A dual-layered Blu-ray can hold about 50 GB.
  • A triple-layered Ultra HD Blu-ray can hold about 100 GB.

Unicode character

The "gigabyte" symbol is encoded by Unicode at code point U+3387 ㎇ SQUARE GB.

See also

References

  1. The prefix giga- may be pronounced two ways.
  2. ^ "Order Granting Motion to Dismiss" (PDF). United States District Court. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  3. See also Dinan v. SanDisk LLC, No. 20-15287 (9th Cir. Feb. 11, 2021) https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16989791406584358656
  4. http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html Prefixes for binary multiples
  5. ^ SanDisk USB Flash Drive Archived 13 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine "Note: 1 megabyte (MB) = 1 million bytes; 1 gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes."
  6. ^ Storage Chart "Megabyte (MB) = 1,000,000 bytes; 1 Gigabyte (GB) = 1,000,000,000 bytes; 1TB = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes"
  7. "How Mac OS X reports drive capacity". Apple Inc. 27 August 2009. Retrieved 16 October 2009.
  8. "How OS X and iOS report storage capacity - Apple Support". support.apple.com. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
  9. "UnitsPolicy". Ubuntu Wiki. Ubuntu. Archived from the original on 18 November 2021. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  10. "ConsistentUnitPrefixes". Debian Wiki. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  11. JEDEC Solid State Technology Association (December 2002). "Terms, Definitions, and Letter Symbols for Microcomputers, Microprocessors, and Memory Integrated Circuits" (PDF). Jesd 100B.01.
  12. ^ Mook, Nate (28 June 2006). "Western Digital Settles Capacity Suit". betanews. Retrieved 30 March 2009.
  13. Baskin, Scott D. (1 February 2006). "Defendant Western Digital Corporation's Brief in Support of Plaintiff's Motion for Preliminary Approval". Orin Safier v. Western Digital Corporation. Western Digital Corporation. Retrieved 30 March 2009.
  14. Judge, Peter (26 October 2007). "Seagate pays out over gigabyte definition". ZDNet. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
  15. Percival, Colin. "Why is 1 GB equal to 10^9 bytes instead of 2^30?". tarsnap.com. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
  16. Unicode Consortium (2019). "The Unicode Standard 12.0 – CJK Compatibility ❰ Range: 3300—33FF ❱" (PDF). Unicode.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 June 2001. Retrieved 24 May 2019.

External links

Units of information
Platform-independent units
Platform-dependent units
Metric bit units
Metric byte units
Category: