2002-01-06 I knew the binary symbols used capitals for the first letter, but I also thought they were spelled out with capitals too. I stand corrected. I know the "I" is always lower case. The "MI" for mibi, instead of "Mi" had to do with me not releasing the shift key fast enough and not checking the spelling manually.
The ångstrom (alt-134 for the å) may not be deprecated, but telling people so may get them to refrain from its use quicker. You want to make them feel out of step with reality. Just telling them it is not encouraged only gives them an excuse to continue its use and not move over to the nanometre. It is good to see the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers starting to move on accepting the use of the "prefixes for binary multiples". Does this mean, if they accept the proposal, products such as memory and floppies will be properly marked and described as such in the market place? Thus 128 MB of RAM will appear as 128 MiB. But, what about floppies? If I remember correctly, isn't the kilobyte binary, but the megabyte is a combination of binary and decimal? Meaning the megabyte is the same as 1024 x 1000 B, instead of either 1000 x 1000 or 1024 x 1024? If so, how will this mess be straighten out? I wonder if computer programmers will come up with patches that will allow the operating system of your computers to display the proper bytes in the proper prefixes. John ----- Original Message ----- From: "James R. Frysinger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, 2002-01-06 09:33 Subject: [USMA:17261] RE: Binary Prefixes > Those prefixes are: > Ki kibi 2^10 > Mi mebi 2^20 > Gi gibi 2^30 > Ti tebi 2^40 > Pi pebi 2^50 > Ei exbi 2^60 > Note that the symbol for kibi does start with an uppercase "K", unlike > the symbol for kilo. Also, the prefixes mebi, tebi, and pebi use "e" for > their first vowel. The "i" is always lower case (John had MI below). > And, as Bill pointed out, the spelled out prefix names start with > lowercase letters. > > The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers has prepared a > proposed standard (P1541) that parallels the IEC standard. Rather than > "binary prefixes", we are using the phrase "prefixes for binary > multiples". Balloting on that proposed standard is expected this spring. > > The angstrom (my apologies for not taking the time to insert the proper > diacrits) is not deprecated; rather, its "use is not encouraged". The > angstrom stands higher in the brochure than the cgs units, for some > reason. > > Jim > > Bill Potts wrote: > > > > Unfortunately, John, you've put capital initials on all of the spelled-out > > binary prefixes. (I guess you must have been in German-speaking mode.) > > > > Just like the standard spelled-out prefixes, they should be lower case. > .... > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of > > kilopascal > > Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2002 21:44 > > To: U.S. Metric Association > > Subject: [USMA:17252] Binary Prefixes > > > > 2002-01-06 > > > > Dear Mr. Ross, > .... > > To address the need for powers of 2 prefixes, the IEC in 1998 authorised a > > new set of prefixes to handle the powers of 2. These prefixes are similar > > to the SI prefixes, but are meant to be used when expressing capacity in > > powers of 2. The binary prefixes use the SI prefixes, kilo, mega, giga, > > tera, etc and contract them with the word "binary" to come up with Kibi, > > Mibi, Gibi, Tibi, etc. These prefixes are only to be combined with the > > units bit and byte (B). Thus a Kibibyte is 2^10 B, a Mibibyte is 2^20 B, a > > Gibibyte is 2^30 B, etc. The symbols are Ki, MI, Gi, etc. > .... > > Also note that the unit Angstrom is not a proper SI unit and is deprecated. > > It is obsolete and is fast disappearing. In fact, I never hear or see it > > anymore, except in something old. The proper replacement is the nanometre > > equal to 10^-9 m. > .... > -- > Metric Methods(SM) "Don't be late to metricate!" > James R. Frysinger, CAMS http://www.metricmethods.com/ > 10 Captiva Row e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Charleston, SC 29407 phone/FAX: 843.225.6789 >
