Terabyte (TB)
The terabyte, symbolized as TB, equals 1,000,000,000,000 bytes in decimal (approximately 1,024 GB in binary). It emerged in the 1990s as storage systems, databases, and servers experienced exponential growth. Terabytes are used to measure hard drives, enterprise storage, data centers, and cloud services. With the rise of big data, video streaming, and high-resolution imaging, the terabyte has become a practical unit for both consumers and professionals. Its adoption enables comprehension of massive digital storage in manageable terms.
Gibibyte (GiB)
The gibibyte, symbol GiB, is a binary unit of digital information equal to 1,073,741,824 bytes (1,024 mebibytes). Introduced by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 1998, it was created to clearly distinguish binary measurements from decimal-based gigabytes (GB), which can equal 1,000,000,000 bytes. Gibibytes are commonly used in operating systems, software engineering, and computer hardware specifications to ensure precise calculations for memory and storage. By using gibibytes, developers and IT professionals avoid ambiguity when reporting RAM, file sizes, and storage capacity, maintaining accuracy across platforms and systems.