"Binary Prefixes"
 

About 8 years ago the IEC introduced Binary Prefixes, where instead of a KiloByte(KB) being 1024 bytes, it's 1000 bytes, and a KibiByte(Kib) is 1024 bytes.

I personally think this is an awesome idea. If this actually goes into widespread use and people actually get educated about it then it'll save a lot of confusion. when someone goes to buy a harddrive and they see that it says 500GB they'll know that it's not gonna be the 500GiB expected by the people who don't know that harddrive makers label harddrive capacities as decimal gigabytes and not binary gigabytes.

I don't remembering seeing Binary Prefixes used anywhere outside of Wikipedia


meh.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix

You know in years of messing about with computers I have never heard of this. I think its rubbish but I do know lots of people that get confused with it.

Hard disks are an example where the manufactures are taking the piss a little bit by using KB = 1000bytes but once you understand that its not like they are pulling the wool over our eyes.

If it became widespread that people refer to a KB = to 1000bytes then there will be lots of confusion as some would think it meant 1024bytes and some 1000bytes. Its best to keep it as 1024 and then just have a nice small warning on hard disc boxes.

I even just asked my systems architecture lab tutor about it at university and he laughed his head off.

I guess it's to move us from confusing some of the people some of the time to confusing all of the people all of the time. I'll pass.

I find it easy as hell to understand... a CD has 700 MebiBytes on it. a DVD has 4.7 GigiaBytes on it,
My HardDrive has 500 Gigabytes, or 465GiB
It's a scam

Most of the time when you come across something to do with computers and there's a number(and money involved) that number isn't what you think it is.

RAM comes in shit like 1024, not 1000.
CD's are 700 REAL Gigabytes

everything else doesn't go by a Kilobyte being 1024 bytes. when it's at this level there's only a 2% difference, you get the gigs and there's a 7% difference.

"If it became widespread that people refer to a KB = to 1000bytes then there will be lots of confusion as some would think it meant 1024bytes and some 1000bytes."
that's how it is right now. what should happen is that people refer to 1000 bytes as Kilo, and 1024 as kibi. how the hell is that confusing?

If Bush can change Daylight Savings time in his last year of presidency just to prove that he has the power to do it, then why the hell can't this change differentiating between decimal and binary prefixes be made

Computers work in binary (its the way the digital electronics work). Its been like that since the beginning of the modern comptuer and I doubt it will change soon. Everything works nice if its a power of 2.

eg
2^10 = 1024 = Kilobyte
2^20 = 1,048,576 = Megabyte
2^30 = 1,073,741,824 = Gigabyte

Its not hard to understand and its makes things simpler if we keep its in powers of 2 and not to change to powers of 10. All my textbooks and use this systems and as DaWei said it would confuse everyone if we tried to change.

Yes, computers work in binary, what the fuck is your point? The metric system was invented before computers and, as you would say, "works in decimal". Kilo means one thousand et cetera, that has nothing to do with how computers work.

Using "kilo" to bean 2^10 instead of 10^3 (its real meaning) is an unfortunate misuse of terminology. I applaud the IEC for trying to fix this problem but doubt they'll succeed.

I doubt Timmy completely understands whats going on here...

but at least I'm not the only one who does.

(Uman your site don't work.)

I don't think it'll change soon either, people are too slow to learn what the hell is going on. it's been 8 years already since it's been introduced and the only place I ever saw it was on wikipedia

My point is when we think about computers we do it in base 2 and when we think about other things we do it in base 10. Giving is another stilly name such as kibi, Mebi, Gibi does not help anyone at it changes the common meaning of kilo, mege, giga etc in computing terms to a power of 10.

Say I tell you I have a file that is 1 Megabyte, do I mean its 1024KB or is it 1000Kb. Now I am confused as to the size and so will anyone I tell it to as i will have to say what system I am using. Lets keep it at 1024KB.

Take the Metric and Imperial measurement systems. A metic tonne for example is 1000Kg but the imperial ton is 2240lbs or 1016Kg. The word tonne and ton sound exactly the same but people usually understand they are different depending on what system you use and where you live in the world.

Oh and please do not use that bad language with me.

The thing is with this change you would be saying that you have a 1 Mebibyte File, and I would know that you are talking about 1024KB


A kilobyte (derived from the SI prefix kilo-, meaning 1,000) is a unit of information or computer storage equal to either 1,000 bytes or 1,024 bytes (210), depending on context. It is commonly abbreviated KB, kB, Kbyte or kbyte. [taken from wikipedia]

Say you go to the store and buy a 500 Gigabyte Hard Drive, a 2 Gigabyte Flash Drive, and 2 Gigabytes of RAM.

When you bring this home, what you actually end up having is a 465
Gigabyte Hard Drive, a 1.9 Gigabyte Flash Drive, and 2 Gigabytes of RAM.

Confusing?

The store is selling you 500,000,000,000 bytes as 500 gigabytes

You're computer thinks that 536,870,912,000 bytes is 500 gigabytes and that 500,000,000,000 bytes is 465 Gigabytes.
Same with the Flash Drive.

The 2 Gigabytes of RAM is actually sold as 2048 Megabytes or RAM, so you get what you're paying for.

Now say you buy a proccessor that says 2.4 GigaHertz, 200 MegaHertz FSB.
That's 2,400,000,000 and 200,000,000.

Say you buy a stack of 700 Megabyte CDs and 4.7 Gigabyte DVDs

the CD's have 734,003,200 bytes each, and the DVD's have 4,700,000,000 on them.

So, as you see, something needs to be done.

512 Mebibytes of RAM = 536,870,912 bytes

700 Mebibyte CD = 734,003,200 bytes

4.7 Gigabyte DVD = 4,700,000,000 bytes

500 Gigabyte Hard Drive = 500,000,000,000 bytes = 565 Gibibytes

So with the new system you'd say that you bought 512 Mebibytes of RAM, some 700 Mebibyte CDs, and some 4.7 Gigabyte DVD's



Do you get it yet?

Its all a load a crap about nothing really. I mean the average user to buys a hard disc does not care if its slightly smaller than they though it was due to the marketing on the box.

Its just the comanys that make storage like CD/DVD/hard discs want to make their products look like they have more space than they really have. Its them who should just the base 2 meaning of MB and GB not everyone else.

I very much doubt it will change any time soon. If you started using the new terms people will just look at you strange. You explain it to them and they think thats silly and then forget it.

Also people dont want to have to learn two measurement systems. Just keep it simple and stick with Megabytes being 1024KB etc, just sometimes you have to explain that its not really a proper megabye when it comes to DVD's and hard discs.