[ The PC Guide | Technical Resource Guide | Reference Tables ]
Standard Metric (SI) Prefixes, Values and Common Usage
There are many different size prefixes that are used to denote large and small numbers. The standard prefixes, from one trillion to one trillionth, are denoted below, along with some of the common places in the computer world where you will see them used:
Name |
Abbr. |
Decimal Power |
Factor |
Common Usage |
tera |
T |
10^12 |
1,000,000,000,000 |
large data warehouses (TB) |
giga |
G |
10^9 |
1,000,000,000 |
mass storage (GB), CPU speed (GHz) |
mega |
M |
10^6 |
1,000,000 |
storage (MB), memory (MB), CPU speed (MHz), others |
kilo |
K |
10^3 |
1,000 |
memory (KB), communication speed (KB/sec), others |
milli |
m |
10^-3 |
0.001 |
drive access speed (ms) |
micro |
� (Greek "mu") |
10^-6 |
0.000001 |
various circuit speeds (us) |
nano |
n |
10^-9 |
0.000000001 |
memory speed (ns), CPU cycle length (ns), capacitors (nF) |
pico |
p |
10^-12 |
0.000000000001 |
capacitors (pF) |
Next: Online
Technical Resources (Links)
| The PC Guide
(http://www.PCGuide.com) Site Version: 2.2.0 - Version Date: April 17, 2001 © Copyright 1997-2004 Charles M. Kozierok. All Rights Reserved. |
Not responsible for any loss resulting from the use of this site. Please read the Site Guide before using this material. |