# Memory and speed counting **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 14, 2001, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memory-and-speed-counting/93254 "2001-11-14T02:51:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![insider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@insider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/insider)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2001, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memory-and-speed-counting/93254/1 "2001-11-14T02:51:30Z")
What is the current progression of size for data counting? ``` Kilobytes Megabytes Gigabytes Terabytes ``` What is next and how far does it go? ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2001, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memory-and-speed-counting/93254/2 "2001-11-14T03:01:26Z")
After Terabyte is: **Petabyte** (1 000 000 000 000 000 bytes) 1 Petabyte: 3 years of EOS data (2001) 2 Petabytes: All US academic research libraries 20 Petabytes: Production of hard-disk drives in 1995 200 Petabytes: All printed material OR Production of digital magnetic tape in 1995 **Exabyte** (1 000 000 000 000 000 000 bytes) 5 Exabytes: All words ever spoken by human beings. **Zettabyte** (1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 bytes) **Yottabyte** (1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 bytes) [Source](http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/~roy/dataquan/) ---
**Author:** ![DPWhite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@DPWhite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPWhite)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2001, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memory-and-speed-counting/93254/3 "2001-11-14T07:00:46Z")
Cool ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2001, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memory-and-speed-counting/93254/4 "2001-11-14T16:19:16Z")
I was at a recent major computer trade show and heard “petrabytes” more than once. Automatically downgraded those companies technical savvy. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2001, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memory-and-speed-counting/93254/5 "2001-11-14T16:45:44Z")
Incidentally, in 1993’s _The Hammer of God_, Arthur C. Clarke (an entertaining but perhaps not expert commentator on the subject of artificial intelligence) considered about 3 terabytes of data sufficient to comprise a self-aware computer. That, obviously, was before the concept of “bloatware.” ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2001, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memory-and-speed-counting/93254/6 "2001-11-14T18:29:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Attrayant \* > **Yottabyte (1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 bytes)** So, a really, _really_ high capacity computer might be said to have a lotta yottabytes. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2001, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memory-and-speed-counting/93254/7 "2001-11-14T18:35:06Z")
\*So, a really, really high capacity computer might be said to have a lotta yottabytes. \* And an even higher capacity one with nothing to say might have yottayottayottabytes. RR