20-04-2009, 13:24
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#1
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cf.mega poster
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Kibibytes and Gibibytes
Units are regulated by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures http://www.bipm.org/en/home .
It determines the absolute value of a kilo as the thousandfold value of its original value. In IT a kilo always means 1,024, therefore, in 2000 the International Bureau of Weights and Measures determined that 1,000 Bytes are a Kilobyte (KB). As a result, whenever 1,024 Bytes are meant, then the unit Kibibyte (KiB) should be used.
Windows claims to measure Gigabyte (GB), but actually means Gibibyte (GiB), and this simply adds to the confusion.
For example, an empty DVD claims to have a capacity of 4.7 GB. Yet only 4.38 are recognized by Windows. Since more and more memory is becoming available, a deviation of up to double-figure percentages is possible.
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20-04-2009, 13:48
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#2
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Guest
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Re: Kibibytes and Gibibytes
oh you are just trying to give us all a headache lol
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20-04-2009, 14:03
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#3
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cf.geek
Join Date: Mar 2005
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Re: Kibibytes and Gibibytes
Can that actually translate to the digital world...
The weight of an object is one thing, memory storage is a completely different medium altogether!
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20-04-2009, 14:58
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#4
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Inactive
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Re: Kibibytes and Gibibytes
I tried telling people this years ago...they thought I was out of my tree!!!
*Has the last laugh*
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20-04-2009, 15:02
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#5
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Guest
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Re: Kibibytes and Gibibytes
also known this for a long time but to be quite honest I have never cared
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20-04-2009, 15:16
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#6
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Trollsplatter
Join Date: Jun 2003
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Re: Kibibytes and Gibibytes
Quote:
Originally Posted by boroboi
Can that actually translate to the digital world...
The weight of an object is one thing, memory storage is a completely different medium altogether!
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Feast your eyes on this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_prefix
Kilo is from the Greek chilia, which means 'thousand'. That's why the word was chosen as a metric prefix (as long ago as 1790 apparently). Its use has been usurped in computing and applied incorrectly. The kibis and gibis mentioned by Taf are in use and are slowly gaining acceptance in the technical literature because they are technically correct as binary prefixes.
It can translate to the digital world, because the SI prefix system was designed for all metric measurements, not simply physical ones. In the long term, it probably should translate into the digital world in common usage as well. Numbers derived from binary are meaningless to average users who want to know how big their new hard drive is.
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20-04-2009, 15:18
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#7
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cf.mega poster
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Re: Kibibytes and Gibibytes
Quote:
Originally Posted by boroboi
Can that actually translate to the digital world...
The weight of an object is one thing, memory storage is a completely different medium altogether!
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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
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20-04-2009, 15:33
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#8
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-
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Re: Kibibytes and Gibibytes
Quote:
Originally Posted by zinglebarb
also known this for a long time but to be quite honest I have never cared 
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Same
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20-04-2009, 17:55
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#9
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cf.geek
Join Date: Mar 2005
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Re: Kibibytes and Gibibytes
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
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Thats a good point actually, i never thought of it like that.
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20-04-2009, 21:02
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#10
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Inactive
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Re: Kibibytes and Gibibytes
I reckon I have 1000 floppy disks in my garage. If each one is 1 Mebibyte, is that 1 kilomebibyte of storage?
Things like this keep me awake at night...
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22-04-2009, 02:55
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#11
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Inactive
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: NW UK
Posts: 3,546
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Re: Kibibytes and Gibibytes
No, because you will probably find that only 2 or 3 of them are still reliable.
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22-04-2009, 09:33
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#12
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cf.mega poster
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Re: Kibibytes and Gibibytes
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheNorm
Things like this keep me awake at night...
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---------- Post added at 08:29 ---------- Previous post was at 08:19 ----------
And no one has yet linked to Wiki on this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix
---------- Post added at 08:33 ---------- Previous post was at 08:29 ----------
Kibi, Mebi, Gibi, Tebi, Pebi, Exbi, Zebi and Yobi all sound like characters from Star Wars.
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