Why does digital storage always have the same values eg. 32gb, 64gb, 128gb, 256gb etc. and why do they double every time they go up in size? Is this a limitation or just a standard?
In: Technology
It all comes down to bits, and simplicity.
There’s no reason an arbitrary amount of storage can’t be used. You could arrange however many memory cells in whatever configuration you want for as much storage as you need. But how do you actually find what you’re looking for?
That process is called “addressing”. Basically each bit that gets stored has its own address to tell the system where it lives.
There’s a lot of different ways to go about having an address and finding the exact place that memory lives, but since we’re dealing with circuitry, it’s very simple to deal with branches of 2.
Imagine you’re given a set of directions for a trip like this: “left, right, left, left, right”. You just need to follow the road until you reach each fork, and take the path the directions say to take.
The same thing happens for memory addressing — each 1 or 0 in the address corresponds to a choice for which block to look at as you get closer and closer to the actual storage place. The first directions will usually refer to which chip group, then which chip within the group, then which bank within the chip, and so on… until the divisions get down to a small enough level to actually find the exact place where the bit is stored. (the memory/storage controller actually usually stops before this and works with a larger group of bits, but this is the general idea)
For simplicity and efficiency, it’s rare to have storage that doesn’t have all of the routes populated along the way. That’s why the storage capacity will be a power of 2, since adding more storage really is just a matter of doubling and doing the exact same thing, just with another layer.
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