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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
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 |