Messages in this thread |  | | Date | Tue, 17 Dec 1996 13:59:24 -0800 (PST) | From | Taner Halicioglu <> | Subject | GB vs MB crap |
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If you look in any physics or math or other textbook, you will see the definitions for:
Kilo - 10^3 (1,000) Mega - 10^6 (1,000,000) Giga - 10^9 (1,000,000,000) Tera - 10^12 (1,000,000,000,000)
In the computer world, these were converted to the closest power of 2:
(K) 2^10 = 1,024 (M) 2^20 = 1,048,576 (G) 2^30 = 1,073,741,824 (T) 2^40 = 1,099,511,627,776
If a vendor says a drive is "540 MB" or even "540 MegaBytes", he could realistically mean either. Most will actually say (in small print) "XXXX corporation defines MB as 1,000,000 Bytes".
Even if they didn't define 'MB', you should consider yourself lucky if they actually gave you 2^20 bits, rather than 10^6 :-)
Having two conflicting definitions for the power prefixes (Kilo, Mega, etc) is sometimes confusing - but always annoying :-)
Anyway, why are we discussing this here? Let's forget about it, or leave it for another mailing list :P
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