UK homes expand digital media empire to one terabyte

One million UK homes now possess at least one terabyte (more than 1,000 gigabytes) of digital media storage.

The estimated figure is based on a study commissioned by Fujitsu Siemens Computers that questioned 1,000 adults, and includes storage capacity on digital devices and actual media stored on items such as DVDs and CDs.

Fujitsu said that a terabyte of data equated to a library of books filling shelves that stretch for 6.5 miles, or just over two laps of the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit.

The findings, said Fujitsu, showed that UK households were increasingly digitally advanced. More than 2.3 million households contain three or more PCs, and 5.25 million homes contain two or more laptops.

In addition, an estimated 1.5 million people have four or more iPods or MP3 players, and three million households boast three or more digital cameras.

Fujitsu said homes had to back up this data, either remotely or on home servers.

What's in a byte? Data units and their equivalent

• 1 byte: a single character
• 1 kilobyte (1,024 bytes): a page of text
• 1 megabyte (1,024 kilobytes): a small novel
• 1 gigabyte (1,024 megabytes): a movie at TV quality
• 1 terabyte (1,024 gigabytes: 50,000 trees made into paper and printed

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