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A tebibyte (TiB) is a unit of digital information equal to \(2^{40}\) bytes (\(1,099,511,627,776\) bytes). It is part of the binary system, which is based on powers of two, and is used for precise measurement in computing. A tebibyte is often confused with a terabyte (TB), which uses the decimal system and equals \(10^{12}\) bytes (\(1,000,000,000,000\) bytes). 

Binary vs. Decimal: Tebibyte uses the binary prefix "tebi-" to represent a quantity based on powers of two, while terabyte uses the decimal prefix "tera-" for powers of ten.

Exact Value: A tebibyte is exactly \(1,099,511,627,776\) bytes, making it more precise for technical contexts like memory and storage capacity than the less exact terabyte.

Origin: The term "tebibyte" was created by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 1998 to resolve the confusion that arose from using decimal prefixes (like tera-) for binary quantities in computing.

Practical Example: A 1 TB hard drive advertised by a manufacturer will have an actual storage capacity of slightly less than one tebibyte when measured in the computer's binary system.