Tera (symbol: T) is a prefix in the SI system of units denoting 1012, or 1 000 000 000 000.
Confirmed in 1960, it comes from the Greek τέρας, meaning monster.
In computer science tera can sometimes mean 1 099 511 627 776 (240), instead of 1 000 000 000 000 especially when used to prefix the byte, giving a terabyte. To avoid this ambiguity, the term tebibyte has been introduced for 240 bytes, but this is not yet widely used.
See also
Last updated: 10-24-2005 14:02:37