We Can Tackle Pebibytes of Data
December 9, 2012
How big will big data get? We have to find the words to describe the numbers first. Search Storage calls out a whole bevy of prefixes all too familiar to anyone interested in big data in the article, “Kilo, Mega, Giga, Tera, Peta, and All That.
There are several new prefixes that could apply too: Kibi, mebi, gibi, tebi, pebi, and all that, which are relatively new prefixes designed to express power-of-two multiples. These were created in order to eradicate any confusion that might arise between decimal (power-of-10) and binary (power-of-2) numeration terms.
Binary data stored in memory or on a hard drive, USB, etc. power-of-2 multipliers are used, the article informs us. Continuing on that note:
“Technically, the uppercase K should be used for kilo- when it represents 210. Therefore 1 KB (one kilobyte) is 210, or 1,024, bytes; 1 MB (one megabyte) is 220, or 1,048,576 bytes. The choice of power-of-10 versus power-of-2 prefix multipliers can appear arbitrary. It helps to remember that in common usage, multiples of bits are almost always expressed in powers of 10, while multiples of bytes are almost always expressed in powers of 2.”
We are waiting for the first company which asserts zeptobyte capabilities. Of course, another company would start asserting yoctobytes are no problem. Either way, the article cited is a good way to keep track of some commonly used big data buzzwords.
Megan Feil, December 09, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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