Binary versus Decimal prefixes Message #1 Posted by bill platt on 21 Apr 2013, 8:59 p.m.
While thumbing through an NIST document, I came across the following:
"These SI prefixes refer strictly to powers of 10. They should
not be used to indicate powers of 2 (for example, one kilobit represents
1000 bits and not 1024 bits). The IEC has adopted
prefixes for binary powers in the international standard IEC 60027-2:
2005, third edition, Letter symbols to be used in electrical
technology – Part 2: Telecommunications and electronics.
The names and symbols for the prefixes corresponding
to 2^10, 2^20, 2^30, 2^40, 2^50, and 2^60 are, respectively: kibi, Ki;
mebi, Mi; gibi, Gi; tebi, Ti; pebi, Pi; and exbi, Ei.
Thus, for example, one kibibyte would be written:
1 KiB = 2^10 B = 1024 B, where B denotes a byte.
Although these prefixes are not part of the SI, they should be
used in the field of information technology to avoid the
incorrect usage of the SI prefixes."
While it seems a good idea in theory, how the hell is this going to stick? We've been saying "kilobytes" for 30 years and we know that is 1024...
I'm not a computer dude (far from it). If you are, what do you think of this?
Edited: 21 Apr 2013, 9:01 p.m.
|