Gigabytes

/ˈɡɪɡəbaɪts/ noun

Definition

Units of computer storage or memory equal to one billion bytes, commonly used to measure the size of files, programs, or the capacity of hard drives.

Etymology

Combines 'giga-' (one billion) with 'byte,' a unit of computer memory consisting of eight bits. This measurement became standard in computing during the 1990s as personal computers needed larger storage capacities.

Kelly Says

A gigabyte is deceptive in practice—your '100 GB' hard drive actually holds about 93 GB because the way manufacturers count (1,000 instead of 1,024) differs from how computers actually work!

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