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Kilo?
- Thread starter Dimandja
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1 kilobyte = 1024 bytes. Even though the prefix "kilo" is supposed to represent "1000".
From Wikipedia: [Kilobyte] is used describing storage capacity and memory size of computers (as it is a power of 2, making it easy for computers, which work in binary, to manipulate).
Since 210 = 1024 and 1024 is close to 1000, computer engineers defined the kilobyte to be 1024 bytes, which in binary is 210. Kilobytes is written as "KB", sometimes abbreviated as "K", to differentiate this from the 'borrowed' SI prefix; M (Mega) was interpreted as K×K = 220 (? 106), and G (Giga) as K×K×K = 230 (? 109).
Susan
"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example." - Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894)
From Wikipedia: [Kilobyte] is used describing storage capacity and memory size of computers (as it is a power of 2, making it easy for computers, which work in binary, to manipulate).
Since 210 = 1024 and 1024 is close to 1000, computer engineers defined the kilobyte to be 1024 bytes, which in binary is 210. Kilobytes is written as "KB", sometimes abbreviated as "K", to differentiate this from the 'borrowed' SI prefix; M (Mega) was interpreted as K×K = 220 (? 106), and G (Giga) as K×K×K = 230 (? 109).
Susan
"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example." - Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894)
- Thread starter
- #3
Do you agree with this page that says that a "binary prefix" should be used in IT?
"Kibi, mebi, gibi, tebi, pebi, and exbi are binary prefix multipliers that, in 1998, were approved as a standard by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in an effort to eliminate the confusion that sometimes occurs between decimal (power-of-10) and binary (power-of-2) numeration terms.
At present, the prefix multipliers kilo- (k or K), mega- (M), giga- (G), tera- (T), peta- (P), and exa- (E) are ambiguous. In most of the physical sciences, and when describing quantities of objects generally, these multipliers refer to powers of 10. However, when used to define data quantity in terms of bytes, they refer to powers of 2.
"Kibi, mebi, gibi, tebi, pebi, and exbi are binary prefix multipliers that, in 1998, were approved as a standard by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in an effort to eliminate the confusion that sometimes occurs between decimal (power-of-10) and binary (power-of-2) numeration terms.
At present, the prefix multipliers kilo- (k or K), mega- (M), giga- (G), tera- (T), peta- (P), and exa- (E) are ambiguous. In most of the physical sciences, and when describing quantities of objects generally, these multipliers refer to powers of 10. However, when used to define data quantity in terms of bytes, they refer to powers of 2.
Stella740pl
Programmer
You know, there is a joke, that a non-programmer thinks that a kilobyte consists of 1000 bytes, and a programmer thinks that a kilometer consists of 1024 meters. Would make a nice Tek-Tips signature, I guess.
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