Articles: Binary units vs Mathematical units
kB, MB, GB, KiB, MiB, GiB, what does it all mean? Many has been thrown off because of the mixed usage of among others the named terms.
Added: 2004-06-21 19:55:04 - Modified: 2006-09-23 23:19:30 - Level: Beginner
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In short, the IEC - The International Electrotechnical Commision - changed the meaning of the term kB in 1998. Due to the mathematical meaning for k - kilo, meaning 1000, it made it was considered ambiguous as it in technical meaning often was refering to 1024, or 210. For more info on this matter, visit http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html
In short it mean that kB now is equivalent of 1000 B, while KiB - or kilobinary byte equivs 1024 B, etc.
Mathworld also feature some clarification on this matter, visiting http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Kibibyte.html
| Factor | Name | Symbol | Origin | Derivation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 210 | kibi | Ki | kilobinary: (210)1 | kilo: (103)1 |
| 220 | mebi | Mi | megabinary: (210)2 | mega: (103)2 |
| 230 | gibi | Gi | gigabinary: (210)3 | giga: (103)3 |
| 240 | tebi | Ti | terabinary: (210)4 | tera: (103)4 |
| 250 | pebi | Pi | petabinary: (210)5 | peta: (103)5 |
| 260 | exbi | Ei | exabinary: (210)6 | exa: (103)6 |
| Term | Numbers |
|---|---|
| one kibibit | 1 Kibit = 210 bit = 1024 bit |
| one kilobit | 1 kbit = 103 bit = 1000 bit |
| one mebibyte | 1 MiB = 220 B = 1 048 576 B |
| one megabyte | 1 MB = 106 B = 1 000 000 B |
| one gibibyte | 1 GiB = 230 B = 1 073 741 824 B |
| one gigabyte | 1 GB = 109 B = 1 000 000 000 B |
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