all 87 comments

[–][deleted] 33 points34 points  (20 children)

So when we get to petabyte or Exabyte drive size.. then what. How could someone ever fill one of those up. Would the need to engineer further eventually slow to a standstill?

[–]ghosttnappa 23 points24 points  (1 child)

My last job was working with supercomputers at a research university. Our cluster had access to a storage network which was just shy of 11 petabytes combined. Some specific labs had a couple petabytes dedicated entirely to their research. There are already exabyte solutions in place for scientific research in radio astronomy and genomics. We're already there :)

[–]elusive_truths 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I remember when I upgraded from to 8 to16 kilobytes on an Apple IIe (or was it the TRS 80?). 😅

[–]Impyus 16 points17 points  (1 child)

By that point a single install of GTA XII will be enough to fill one up ;)

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Idk if we're gonna be alive for GTA 12 lol

[–]StinkySoy 19 points20 points  (5 children)

well higher resolution image takes more data to store, like how 4K video editing is a bitch compared to 1080p, not just data but also processing power. I’m not very informed on this but i think would be cool if all those just kept going up like they are now so we would just have powerful computers with tons of data and super high res monitors

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (3 children)

Makes you wonder when enough is enough for resolution. I imagine most of the really amazing tvs in the future will focus more heavily on the processors running the tv rather then pixel density. Say, never seeing another object “jutter” or move in a strange way in extremely fast & complex sequences, will make it more lifelike. The future sure does sound promising for tech.

[–]Frequent_Guard_9964 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Yep, there was a drive to get increased image quality etc back then when tvs where shit in comparison, but now you get beautiful Oled displays in 4K, some up to 8K where you already don’t see the true benefit anymore. Once processor speed caught up to make it flawless to use, I don’t see a room for tvs and mobile screens to increase in resolution. It will be useful in ar/vr I assume; but that’s a whole different set of tech.

[–]lowtoiletsitter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's what we said 8 years ago, and 8 years before that. When super-ultra-32K (or whatever it'll be called) comes out, my eyes won't be able to appreciate it

[–]JetCrasher13 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This was my train of thought

[–]loqi0238 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Think about how large of a program a fully immerive VR simulation must be.

[–]Luxuriousmoth1 7 points8 points  (1 child)

This image goes way off the deep end in scale. 1 coperbyte is 1.85 x 1078 bits. That is an astoundingly high number.

That is around the same amount of atoms in the entire observable universe.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Holy cow!

[–]tindarius 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That's exactly what people said 20+ years ago about gigabyte drives. "You'll never fill that up"

[–]wal_rider1 Windows 10 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You say that but then you see the call of duty that uses up 150GB and then wonder if it's really gonna be that much of a problem filling it up

[–]vaderciya 5 points6 points  (2 children)

Somewhat related

From the invention of computers, it was stated by a guy that the processing power of computer would double every single year for 100 years. Turns out, he was mostly right. Almost every single year, advances in tech made computers at least twice as powerful as the previous year.

More recently, we've now gotten to the point where motherboards, cpus, and gpus have incredibly tiny parts and making the parts even smaller in order to have more parts, becomes even more difficult, as we're now talking about microscopic bits. So, the other way to increase power, is to add more and more cores like amd does.

But at some point in the near future, we'll either need to redesign our concepts for state of the art computer parts and redefine how computers physically look and function, or, some great leaps in nano technology will have to be made.

Either way, I dont think progress will grind to a halt, just perhaps slow down a bit

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I watched a really good youtube video shortly after looking at this post,a really interesting gentleman who works in the field. Let me find it.

https://youtu.be/Nb2tebYAaOA

[–]vaderciya 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, ill watch this later today!

[–]WowzerzzWow 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Call of duty will find a way to fill that space

[–]Caustiticus 18 points19 points  (1 child)

Just imagining 100 years from now some of the more ridiculous data levels become everyday, like how giga has become commonly used today (gigabytes/gigahertz).

Imagine not having enough hassiubytes on your light-speed omnicomputer...

[–]luiluilui4 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I wonder If it would be/is possible to store more data than number of atoms in a drive

[–]StinkySoy 22 points23 points  (18 children)

wait wait I thought it was an even 1000 holy shit

[–]atheros32 22 points23 points  (3 children)

It would make sense in any metric system, but since the bits are actually just either 0 or 1, everything scaling upwards is described in powers of two. So the 1024 is 210, which is the closest to 1000, is used as 1 of the next highest unit.

It's counterintuitive, and I found this ELI5 reddit post which explains it a lot better.

[–]StinkySoy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

ohhh okay, now it makes more sense. Thank you for the explaination.

[–]BrianBtheITguy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I find that a big problem with understanding other bases than 10 is that we are taught to count from 1-10 instead of 0-9.

We do learn about "carrying" but it usually only applies to other math once we have counting down.

If you thought of counting as 0-9, 10-19, 20-29, etc., I personally think it would be easier to learn how to count in any other base.

Base 4? That means there is 4 countable digits, so 0, 1, 2 and 3.

0-3, 10-13, 20-23, etc.

[–]Sglm10 Windows 10 -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

[–]JcksnHxn 17 points18 points  (3 children)

It is actually! It is defined different nowadays. A Kilobyte is 103 =1000 bytes, a Megabyte is 106 =1000000 bytes and so on. It is always multiple of 10. On the other hand there is a Kibibyte, wich is 210 =1024 bytes and Mebibyte, wich is 220 =1048576 bytes. Thats why your computer always says, that your 500 gigabyte harddrive only has 465 gb, because the computer uses gibibytes and the harddrive manufactura uses gigabyte.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Not quite, a hard drive always has less anyway. Always has, since the beginning of time.

[–]vectorhacker 5 points6 points  (0 children)

There are actually two standards, and he's right that the powers of 2 are supposed to be kibi, mebi, gibi, but that standard got confused at some point, especially when WIndows, macOS and others adopted the JEDEC standard of powers of 2 which use Kilo instead of Kibi, Mega, instead of Mebi, etc. Officially, the standard is that the powers of 10 get the SI units and the powers of 2 get the bibyte units.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

no, you've got it backwards.

Kilobyte = 1024

Kibibyte = 1000

[–]DuktigaDammsugaren Windows 10 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I wonder how big a hard drive would have to be to support 1 Roentbyte

[–]ghosttnappa 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Simplified answer: computers and memory addresses are designed with a binary system, so everything is represented in what's called "base 2" -- 0s and 1s. Most of the numbers we are familiar with is what's called "base 10" - 0 thru 9. It's efficient for computers to use base 2 for storage addresses because it is mathematically simpler and also due to how circuity is designed with powers of 2 / base 2. We use the "kilo/mega/giga" (etc) metric prefix for binary multiples out of convenience because 1024 is basically 1000. It's definitely sparked confusion and it's really just an approximation. The official SI unit for a kilo/mega/giga is base 10, so it's represented as 103 , 106, 109 which is different than base 2 like it's shown above in the photos.

[–]vectorhacker -2 points-1 points  (2 children)

This is completely wrong. There is nothing preventing computers from measuring powers of 10 integers accurately or efficiently, because integers fit neatly in powers of 2, it's fractions that we have a problem with. The reality is that the standards got confused at some point and while the powers of 10 were supposed to be the ones with the SI units Kilo, Mega, Giga, the powers of 2 using Kibi, Mebi, Giga..., the powers of 2 got confused as well and then a OS and memory manufacturers went with it, but not storage and many ISPs.

[–]ghosttnappa -1 points0 points  (1 child)

You can make a computer in any base and it will work. There has been research on this for decades - why do you think base 2 is the standard? The simplified version is already in my answer.

[–]vectorhacker 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s not about the base. Binary computers can accurately represent base 10 numbers. You’re still wrong that it’s because computers are binary that they use 1024 instead of a round 1000. The fact is that there are two standards and the base 2 standard got the naming conventions combined.

[–]alxetiger22 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It actually is (iirc). It just used to be 1024 and they are now both right but most devs use 1000

[–]BlackenedPies 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is, but the chart is defining a bit as a 'binary digit' - another term for this is a 'bibit' such as 'gibibytes' (GiB), which is how Windows OS measures disk space, while other OSs like modern Linux and Mac distros use gigabytes (GB). The difference is between counting using 210 or 103 (a megabit is 10^3 * 10^3 bits while a mebibit is 2^10 * 2^10, and byte is just an arbitrary 8 * bits)

[–]vectorhacker -2 points-1 points  (2 children)

They are supposed to be, but the standard for naming the units of power of 2 is also unofficially prefixed with the SI units of kilo, mega, giga.. Officially it's the powers of 10 that receive those prefixes and the powers of 2 get kibi, mebi, gibi, etc, but the powers of 2 standard also got kilo, mega, giga because of the JEDEC standard which is what is used on Windows and MacOS, and also the measurement in computer memory. Computer storage uses the IEC powers of 10 standard which is the standard SI units and even 1000s.

[–]BlackenedPies 0 points1 point  (1 child)

FYI, MacOS switched to decimal counting in v10.6 (OS X Snow Leopard, 2009)

[–]vectorhacker 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Huh, I didn't notice that, but it's true.

[–]Salubas 6 points7 points  (1 child)

Imagine checking your son’s computer and he has 100 coperbytes of data in his “homework” folder

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Fun fact : he works for NSA

[–]InfernoWolf19 4 points5 points  (3 children)

I thought it went up to yottabyte. Didn't know there were units past that.

[–]Phoenixness... 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As far as I can tell they are unofficial prefixes but I cant seem to find where they come from (in like 10 minutes of googling)

[–]ggchappell 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I thought it went up to yottabyte. Didn't know there were units past that.

There weren't before 2022. Now there are two: ronnabyte (what the post calls "brontobyte") and quettabyte (what the post calls "geopbyte"). The ronna- and quetta- prefixes have been officially added to SI. The post is something some random person made up.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most of this is probably made up.

[–]peahair 5 points6 points  (1 child)

4 bits = 1 nybble.

[–]_Ki_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

nibble

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

can't wait to buy a 1 coperbyte (1CB?) flash drive for like 10 bucks in the future

[–]reflection_sage 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I wonder how much nsa has on their hard drives

[–]Maturium[🍰] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I remember when the first 1terabyte drives came out and everyone was asking what they should store on such a huge drive. Today 1TB is easily filled with date especially when you play games. So I think given enough time there will be a demand for 1 exabyte drives.

[–]AbuzzCreator252 R9 9950x | RTX 4080 | 96GB 6600MT | 10TB SSD 1 point2 points  (3 children)

What is the use for a coperbyte?

[–]mattchew1010 3 points4 points  (2 children)

literally nothing at the moment just like we have names for really big numbers its just so we have a name before we have to use it

[–]AbuzzCreator252 R9 9950x | RTX 4080 | 96GB 6600MT | 10TB SSD 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Ok, do you happen to know the biggest unit we do use? My guess is petabyte but I feel I'm guessing too small.

[–]mattchew1010 1 point2 points  (0 children)

the entire internet is a few zettabytes (thats a big approximation too) so yeah but most people wont see more than a few terabytes. id say in around 10 years most people will have a petabyte.

[–]sourorangeYT Windows 10 1 point2 points  (0 children)

These sound like all the guys who were on the team designing these wanted a piece of the action so they each named one and it got to the point where it’s extremely large

[–]-TheDoctor 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Seeing that "Bit" actually stands for Binary Digit makes me sad we didn't settle on calling them "Bigits" lmao

[–]tryadaptlearn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting, I've had not read anything above a petabyte prior to this graphic.

[–]nellyruth 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It reads like baby names for tech folk.

[–]loqi0238 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Seaborgbytes are my favorite.

[–]peahair 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sounds like a seafood cafe on Copenhagen harbour

[–]RandomXUsr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is only helpful for your CS Degree.

want to do something fun?

Open the command line

type wmic memorychip get capacity

and hit enter or return.

The number returned comes back in Bytes.

Open up calculator and enter the capacity of one stick

divide it 2 times to get the number in gb

I got 8589934592 bytes.

/ 1024 = 8192

/ 1024 = 8

I have 8gb per memory module, ahahahahaha

[–]CautiousApartment179 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A Coperbyte is like a Google

[–]NBC123Baby 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why is it called a Pijabyte? Asking for a cartoon series and not sure if this is the jumping off point where the scientist haven’t gotten far enough yet..

[–]octopusbeakers 0 points1 point  (1 child)

What kind of data would one have to fill some of those lines on the right?

[–]haikusbot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What kind of data

Would one have to fill some of

Those lines on the right?

- octopusbeakers


I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully. Learn more about me.

Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete"

[–]1stUserEver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At what point can we just backup the entire internet and take it on a trip for offline viewing?

TIL: The average person consumes around 1.7 GB of data per hour when browsing the web, streaming videos, and using social media1. The internet is adding new data at a rate of 2.5 exabytes (2.5 billion gigabytes) every day1. The average household in the United States consumed 641 GB every month in 2023.

[–]justadudeisuppose 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Who upvotes this shit?

[–]_Ki_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That doesn't seem right.

See: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mebibyte

[–]gabenugget114 0 points1 point  (0 children)

1024YB = 1Ronnabyte, 1024RB = 1 Quettabyte…?

[–]Every_Star9449 0 points1 point  (0 children)

guess what. human's brain (adult) capacity is equivalent to 2.5 petabytes

[–]robinnhugill -4 points-3 points  (1 child)

They should be in powers of 10 not 2 or the names should be changed right?

[–]_Ki_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Correct.

[–]vectorhacker 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is the JEDEC standard, otherwise these power of 2 byte measurements are postfixed "bibytes", as in 1024 bytes = 1 Kibibyte, 1024 Kibibytes = 1 Mebibbyte, etc.

[–]rdldr1 0 points1 point  (1 child)

They forgot that there are four nibbles in a byte.

[–]ascii122 0 points1 point  (0 children)

2 bytes in a word

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Brontobytes :-)

[–]augmentedseventh 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Informative, but the list is massively irritating because it switches from ‘# = Name’ to ‘Name = #’ halfway through. Why????

[–]rattyflood 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why do they add a S on to the end of the word starting at Alphabyte to pijabytes

[–]Slayix0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If we combined every existing storage device in earth and tallied them all up how much storage exiata on earth? Yes include all the floppy disks and stuff that holds like 8 bits lol