Terabytes Per Second

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What Does Terabytes Per Second Mean?

Terabytes per second (TBps) refers to a data transmission rate equivalent to 1,000 gigabytes, or 1,000,000,000,000 bytes per second. This extremely fast data transfer rate is used to quantify various kinds of data transmission between pieces of equipment or software environments, or for some other kinds of data handling. Terabytes per second may also go by the acronym TB/s.

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Techopedia Explains Terabytes Per Second

The assessment of data handling in terms of terabytes per second is a relatively new phenomenon. Throughout the last decade, data transmission storage capabilities were usually measured either in gigabytes or in megabytes. New technologies have pushed the possibilities of data transfer and storage into a realm to which the terabyte now applies.

In terms of data transfer, new laser technologies are chiefly responsible for bringing data transfer rates into the territory of TBps measurements. Scientists have found that lasers can quickly alter the magnetic data entries in a drive, making it possible to achieve much faster data transfer rates by heating the medium and blasting it with lasers. This kind of technology is still in its infancy, but a normal projected progression of data handling and storage is likely to create a shift measurements from GBps to TBps in the near future.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist
Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.