 the petabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. the prefix peta indicates the fifth power of 1000 and means 1015 in the international system of units (si), and therefore 1 petabyte is one quadrillion (short scale) bytes, or 1 billiard (long scale) bytes. the unit symbol for the petabyte is pb. 1 pb =  =  = . a related unit, the pebibyte (pib), using a binary prefix, is the corresponding fifth power of 1024, which is more than 12% greater (250 bytes = ). ==usage examples== examples of the use of the petabyte to describe data sizes in different fields are: * telecommunications (capacity): the world's effective capacity to exchange information through two-way telecommunication networks was 281 petabytes of information in 1986, 471 petabytes in 1993, 2,200 petabytes in 2000, and 65,000 petabytes in 2007 (this is the informational equivalent to every person exchanging 6 newspapers per day)."the worldâs technological capacity to store, communicate, and compute information", martin hilbert and priscila lÃ³pez (2011), science (journal), 332(6025), 60-65; see also "free access to the study" and "video animation". * telecommunications (usage): at&t transfers about 30 petabytes of data through its networks each day. * internet: google processed about 24 petabytes of data per day in 2009. the bbc's iplayer is reported to use 7 petabytes of bandwidth each month. imgur transfers about 4 petabytes of data per month. * supercomputers: in january 2012, cray began construction of the blue waters supercomputer, which will have a capacity of 500 petabytes making it the largest storage array ever if realized.{{cite news|url=http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/blue-waters-petaflop-supercomputer-installation-begins-
Units_of_information