giga-, prefix
(dʒ-, ˈgaɪgə; dʒ-, ˈgɪgə)
An arbitrary derivative of Gr. γίγας giant, prefixed to the names of units in the metric system to form the names of units 1000 million (109) times greater. Abbrev. G.
| 1947 Compt. Rend. de la 14me Conf. (Internat. Union of Chem.) 115 The following prefixes to abbreviations for the names of units should be used..G giga- 109×. 1951 Symbols, Signs, & Abbrev. (R. Soc.) 15/1 Prefixes to abbreviations for the names of units indicating multiples..giga (× 109). 1960 Gloss. Terms Telecomm. (B.S.I.) 179 Frequencies of 1,000 Mc/s and above are sometimes expressed in gigacycles per second (Gc/s). 1 Gc/s = 1000 Mc/s. 1964 New Scientist 30 Jan. 286/1 An extraordinarily high output (from megawatts to gigawatts). 1966 Electronics 3 Oct. 171 It will relay aircraft transmissions..over existing 4-gigahertz and 6-Ghz satellite frequencies. 1966 Auden About House 17 Translated in a nano-second To a c.c. of poisonous nothing In a giga-death. 1968 Nature 19 Oct. 311/2 CIPM at its meeting in 1958 recommended the prefix giga (pron. j{imacacu}ga; symbol G) for the multiple 109. |
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For ‘in the metric system’ read ‘esp. in the metric system’, and add later examples.
| 1968 A. C. Clarke 2001: Space Odyssey xliii. 207 That solar system now unknown gigamiles away. 1970 Sci. News 4 Apr. 345/2 The four-minute-mile for electronics engineers has been the gigabit computer, a computer that can process a billion bits of information per second. 1973 Topical Meeting on Optical Storage of Digital Data Tu. A. iv. 1 In order to circumvent these limitations and to reach Gigabyte capacities where holographic memories would not have to compete with others such as semiconductor memories, we are considering three concepts. 1983 Computerworld 11 July 98/4 There is an accelerating need for gigabit logic functions and microwave field effect transistors found in defense and aerospace data links. 1985 New Scientist 7 Nov. 48/2 These particles weigh in at 80–90 gigaelectronvolts (GeV)—nearly 100 times the mass of a proton. 1986 Personal Computer World Nov. 139/2 The address bus size means that four gigabytes of RAM are directly accessible by the processor without any bank switching. |