Gigabyte

/ˈɡɪɡəˌbaɪt/ or /ˈdʒɪɡəˌbaɪt/ noun

Definition

A unit for measuring digital information, roughly equal to one billion bytes of data.

Etymology

From *giga-* meaning “billion” (from Greek *gigas* “giant”) + *byte*, a basic unit of computer information. The term became common as storage and memory sizes increased beyond megabytes. It now feels small next to terabytes and petabytes.

Kelly Says

A single gigabyte can hold hundreds of songs or thousands of photos, yet it’s just patterns of tiny electrical states. As we climb from kilobytes to gigabytes to terabytes, we’re watching human memory move from shelves and paper into invisible code.

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