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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 Revision as of 01:18, 15 November 2006 edit undo205.188.116.73 (talk) →DefinitionNext edit →
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There are two slightly different definitions of the size of a gigabyte in use: There are two slightly different definitions of the size of a gigabyte in use:


* 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. * 1,000,000,000 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> * 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>


Revision as of 01:18, 15 November 2006

This article is about the unit of measurement. For the computer hardware manufacturer, see Gigabyte Technology.
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

A gigabyte (derived from the SI prefix giga-) is a unit of information or computer storage equal to one billion (that is, a thousand million) bytes.

Definition

There are two slightly different definitions of the size of a gigabyte in use:

  • 1,000,000,000 bytes or 10 bytes is the decimal definition used in telecommunications (such as network speeds) and most computer storage manufacturers (such as s and ). This usage is compatible with SI. Quotes from Seagate: "The storage industry standard is to display capacity in decimal", and "One gigabyte, or GB, equals one billion bytes when referring to hard drive capacity"Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

About its name

It is commonly abbreviated GB in writing (not to be confused with Gb, which is used for gigabit)

Gigabyte is often informally abbreviated to gig, as in "This is a three hundred gig hard drive".

In English the initial G of giga- 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.

Gigabytes vs gigabits

In conventional modern usage, a byte is 8 bits. One gigabyte is equivalent to eight gigabits.

Abbreviation No. of megabytes Usage
gigabytes GB (Note: big "B") 1000 Computer storage (eg 500 GB hard disk)
gigabit Gb (Note: small "b") 125 Network throughput (eg 1 Gb/s data transfer rate)

Gigabytes in use

Facts

  • As of 2006, most consumer hard drives 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, computer memory 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 GB.

Gigabytes in different products

  • A DVD-5 format disc is capable of storing 4.7 gigabytes, or roughly 4.38 gibibytes. A DVD-9 is capable of storing 8.5 gigabytes, or roughly 7.92 gibibytes.
  • One gigabyte is roughly equal to 18 hours of MP3 music (at 128 kbit/s).
  • One gigabyte is roughly equivalent to 11 hours, 40 minutes of Flash video (at 450x370).
  • Most 6th generation game consoles have game discs that are around 1 GB or more: Dreamcast (1.1 GB), GameCube (1.5 GB), Playstation 2 (8.5 GB), and Xbox (8.5 GB)
  • The human genome contains 0.791175 GB of data (the 3.1647×10 base pairs represented as 2-bits).

See also

Notes

External links

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