Yottabyte

The yottabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix yotta indicates multiplication by the eighth power of 1000 or 10²⁴ in the International System of Units (SI), and therefore one yottabyte is one septillion (one long scale quadrillion) bytes. The unit symbol for the yottabyte is YB.

1 YB = 1000⁸bytes = 10²⁴bytes = 1000000000000000000000000bytes = 1000zettabytes = 1trillionterabytes

A related unit, the yobibyte (YiB), using a binary prefix, is equal to 1024⁸bytes.

Examples

• In 2010, it was estimated that storing a yottabyte on terabyte-size disk drives would require one million city block size data-centers, as big as the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.^[1] If 200 GB microSDXC cards (the most compact data storage medium available to the public as of early 2015) were used instead, the total volume would be approximately 800000 cubic meters, or four times the volume of Hindenburg zeppelin.
• With recently demonstrated technology using DNA computing for storage, one yottabyte of capacity would require a volume between 0.003 and 1 cubic meter, depending on number of redundant backup copies desired and the storage density: "Our genetic code packs billions of gigabytes into a single gram".^[2] DNA is much less mature technology than microSDXC cards (for this application) and accompanied by uncertain costs, but this suggests potential information density.^[3]

See also

• Natural computing
• DNA computing
• Yottabyte LLC-A cloud computing/data storage company

References

1. Diaz, Jesus (7 Jun 2010). "The One Hundred Trillion Dollars Hard Drive". Gizmodo. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
2. "DNA: The Ultimate Hard Drive". August 16, 2012.
3. "Yottabyte DNA. Database of the New Age". August 17, 2012. Archived from the original on January 10, 2014.