In computing, we deal with a large range of orders of magnitude: from individual bits to petabytes of storage, for example.

On this page are two tables of order of magntitude, one for time and one for data sizes, with examples.

Table 1: time scales in computing

time	example
10^-9 = 1 ns	about one CPU instruction (Intel GHz era); about the time electrical signal in copper wire transmits 0.3 meters
10^-8 = 10 ns	about one CPU instruction (486 era)
10^-7 = 100 ns	DRAM random read
10^-6 = 1 μs (1000 ns)
10^-5 = 10 μs	ping time on localhost
10^-4 = 100 μs	ping time on gigabit LAN
10^-3 = 1 ms (1000 μs)	ping time on 100 Mbit/s LAN
10^-2 = 10 ms	hard disk seek time, Linux kernel context switch
10^-1 = 100 ms	ping time across the Internet
10⁰ = 1 s (1000 ms)	Linux kernel boot time
10¹ = 10 s
10² = 100 s (~ 1.5 min)
10³ = 1 ks (~ 15 min)
10⁴ = 10 ks (~ 3 hour)
10⁵ = 100 ks (~ 1 day)
10⁶ = 1 Ms (~ 2 weeks)
10⁷ = 10 Ms (~ 4 months)
10⁸ = 100 Ms (~ 3 years)
10⁹ = 1 Gs (~ 30 years)	Unix 32-bit time overflow (4 Gs)

Table 2: data sizes in computing

bits	bytes	example
2⁰ = 1	0.125 B	one bit
2¹ = 2	0.25 B
2² = 4	0.5 B	binary coded decimal digit
2³ = 8	1 B	one byte, one character in ASCII
2⁴ = 16	2 B	IP protocol number; microcomputer word size in the 80s
2⁵ = 32	4 B	size of IPv 4 address
2⁶ = 64	8 B	typical password length
2⁷ = 128	16 B	MD5 checksum length, UUID length, size of IPv6 address
2⁸ = 256	32 B	X11 protocol event structure
2⁹ = 512	64 B	minimum Ethernet frame length
2¹⁰ = 1024	128 B	typical RAM cache line length
2¹¹ = 2048	256 B	paragraph of text
2¹² = 4096	512 B	hard disk sector
2¹³ = 8192	1 KiB
2¹⁴ = 16384	2 KiB	ISO filesystem sector
2¹⁵ = 32768	4 KiB	memory page, disk allocation unit, page of text
2¹⁶ = 65536	8 KiB
2¹⁷	16 KiB
2¹⁸	32 KiB	DVD sector size
2¹⁹	64 KiB	address space for 8-bit CPUs; large memory page
2²⁰	128 KiB	NAND flash erase block
2²¹	256 KiB
2²²	512 KiB
2²³	1 MiB
2²⁴	2 MiB	large memory page on x86-64 or x86-32 with PAE
2²⁵	4 MiB	compressed pop song
2²⁶	8 MiB
2²⁷	16 MiB	typical high-end DSLR RAW image file
2²⁸	32 MiB
2²⁹	64 MiB
2³⁰	128 MiB
2³¹	256 MiB
2³²	512 MiB	typical memory size in a smartphone (2011)
2³³	1 GiB
2³⁴	2 GiB	cheap USB flash drive (2011)
2³⁵	4 GiB	single-sided, single-layered DVD
2³⁶	8 GiB	maximum laptop memory (2011)
2³⁷	16 GiB	maximum memory for desktop (2011)
2³⁸	32 GiB
2³⁹	64 GiB
2⁴⁰	128 GiB	largest USB flash drive (2011)
2⁴¹	256 GiB	largest SSD disk (2011)
2⁴²	512 GiB	typical laptop hard disk (2011)
2⁴³	1 TiB	typical desktop hard disk (2011)
2⁴⁴	2 TiB	largest hard disk (2011)
2⁴⁵	4 TiB
2⁴⁶	8 TiB
2⁴⁷	16 TiB
2⁴⁸	32 TiB
2⁴⁹	64 TiB
2⁵⁰	128 TiB
2⁵¹	256 TiB	supercomputer RAM (2011)
2⁵²	512 TiB
2⁵³	1 PiB
2⁵⁴	2 PiB	supercomputer disk space (2011)
2⁵⁵	4 PiB
2⁵⁶	8 PiB
2⁵⁷	16 PiB
2⁵⁸	32 PiB
2⁵⁹	64 PiB
2⁶⁰	128 PiB
2⁶¹	256 PiB
2⁶²	512 PiB
2⁶³	1 EiB	monthly Internet traffic (2004)
2⁶⁴	2 EiB
2⁶⁵	4 EiB
2⁶⁶	8 EiB
2⁶⁷	16 EiB
2⁶⁸	32 EiB
2⁶⁹	64 EiB
2⁷⁰	128 EiB
2⁷¹	256 EiB
2⁷²	512 EiB
2⁷³	1 ZiB
2⁷⁴	2 ZiB
2⁷⁵	4 ZiB
2⁷⁶	8 ZiB
2⁷⁷	16 ZiB
2⁷⁸	32 ZiB
2⁷⁹	64 ZiB
2⁸⁰	128 ZiB
2⁸¹	256 ZiB
2⁸²	512 ZiB
2⁸³	1 YiB
2⁸⁴	2 YiB
2⁸⁵	4 YiB
2⁸⁶	8 YiB
2⁸⁷	16 YiB
2⁸⁸	32 YiB
2⁸⁹	64 YiB
2⁹⁰	128 YiB
2⁹¹	256 YiB
2⁹²	512 YiB
2⁹³	1024 YiB
2⁹⁴	2048 YiB
2⁹⁵	4096 YiB
2⁹⁶	8192 YiB
2⁹⁷	16384 YiB
2⁹⁸	32768 YiB
2⁹⁹	65536 YiB
2¹⁰⁰	131072 YiB
2¹⁰¹
2¹⁰²
2¹⁰³
2¹⁰⁴
2¹⁰⁵
2¹⁰⁶
2¹⁰⁷
2¹⁰⁸
2¹⁰⁹
2¹¹⁰
2¹¹¹
2¹¹²
2¹¹³
2¹¹⁴
2¹¹⁵
2¹¹⁶
2¹¹⁷
2¹¹⁸
2¹¹⁹
2¹²⁰
2¹²¹
2¹²²
2¹²³
2¹²⁴
2¹²⁵
2¹²⁶
2¹²⁷

Table 3: Transfer speeds in computing

bits/s	example
10 Mbit/s	pure paramiko over localhost (Linux, Thinkpad X200s)
250 Mbit/s	paramiko+openssh over localhost (Linux, Thinkpad X200s)
400 Mbit/s	sftp over localhost (Linux, openssh, Thinkpad X200s)
3 Gbit/s	raw speed over localhost (Linux 3.2, Thinkpad X200s)