Bits,+Bytes,+etc.

Bits, Bytes, etc. An alternative to the one already entered in my tips

A contact of mine kindly came up with this alternative way of calculation I am posting it in order that you can see the confusion that often occurs when so-called experts start to alter an established system. This accounts sometimes for people who complain that their computer is no up to the specs advertised. Obviously it depends on which system the manufacturer is using A kibibyte (a contraction of kilo binary byte) is a unit of information or computer storage, abbreviated KiB (never "kiB"). 1 kibibyte = 210 bytes = 1,024 bytes The kibibyte is closely related to the kilobyte, which can be used either as a synonym for kibibyte or to refer to 103 bytes = 1,000 bytes

Usage of these terms was intended to help prevent the confusion common among storage media, due to the ambiguous meaning of "kilobyte". Thus the term kibibyte has evolved to refer exclusively to 1,024 bytes. This problem of confusion of the term kilobyte simultaneously being used to refer to both 1,000 and 1,024

It became more prevalent when computer hard drives grew to the gigabyte and larger size, because if one expects power of two values to refer to capacity, and manufacturers were using power of ten values, the difference could be substantial. e.g. 1 megabyte, if expressed as power of two, is 10242 or 1024×1024, or 1,048,576, while 1000×1000, of course, is 1,000,000. In the case of a "gigabyte" if one uses 10243, the size of a drive would be expected to be 1,073,741,824 bytes per gigabyte versus 10003, or a mere 1,000,000,000. On a 100 gigabyte drive, the difference is more than 7 billion characters additional storage, depending on whether 100 gigabytes refers to 100×10003 or 100×10243.

Confused well that is what they intend, in order that you have no grounds for complaint.

Gibibyte A gibibyte (a contraction of giga binary byte) is a unit of information or computer storage, abbreviated GiB. 1 gibibyte = 230 bytes = 1,073,741,824 bytes = 1,024 mebibytes The gibibyte is closely related to the gigabyte, which can either be a synonym for gibibyte, or refer to 109 bytes = 1,000,000,000 bytes, depending on context

Quantities of bytes SI prefixes Binary prefixes (IEC 60027-2)

Name (Symbol) Value in Popular Usage Value in Standard SI Name (Symbol)

Value kilobyte (kB) 210 103 kibibyte (KiB) 210 megabyte (MB) 220 106 mebibyte (MiB) 220 gigabyte (GB) 230 109 gibibyte (GiB) 230 terabyte (TB) 240 1012 tebibyte (TiB) 240 petabyte (PB) 250 1015 pebibyte (PiB) 250 exabyte (EB) 260 1018 exbibyte (EiB) 260 zettabyte (ZB) 270 1021 zebibyte (ZiB) 270 yottabyte (YB) 280 1024 yobibyte (YiB) 280 