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Originally Posted by mmm
Hard disk manufacturers and comms companies usually use whatever definition of k and M that gives them the bigger number, but when you format your harddisk the available space is much smaller!
Memory manufacturers usually use the more 'computer science' correct
1 byte = 8 bits
1 kbyte = 1024 bits (= 2^10)
1 Mbyte = 1024 kbyte = 1,048,576 bytes (2^20)
so
I'm sure you know better than me what the ntl config file will say - I'm looking forward to finding out what definition of 1Mbit NTL use (but I still expect a million bits which is consistent with 10/100 Mbit Ethernet definition I believe). And yes my 8.5 bits per byte is an approximation to allow for packet overhead and other losses, for a precise value see
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d...html#kilobytes |
Strictly speaking a byte can consist of any number of bits depending on the architecture of the system on which it is used. 9 bit bytes were fairly common many years ago on 36 bit computers but the number of bits per byte could be as low as 6 or as high as 64 in my experience. A true definition of byte would be the smallest addressable unit of storage.
These days it is commonly accepted that a byte consists of 8 bits. It is impossible to have a byte size that isn't a whole number.
The prefixes kilo, mega and giga mean different things depending on their usage. In communication speeds kilo means 1,000 whereas in file sizes kilo means 2 to the power 10 or 1,024.