On Fri, Jan 10, 2003 at 09:07:21PM +0100, Roman Neuhauser wrote: > # [EMAIL PROTECTED] / 2003-01-10 14:49:01 -0500: > > "Roman V. Mashak" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > > > Hello. > > > I've got the following problem. Is it normal, that FreeBSD (latest > > > 4.7stable) is detecting my harddrive (see subj.) like this: > > > > > > ad1: 76319MB [155061/16/63] UDMA100 > > > > > > Although my BIOS detect hard-drive as 80GB capacity. > > > I have Intel-d845ebg2 motherboard and BIOS version is PT84520A.86A.0009.P04 > > > > 76319MB is almost exactly 80x10^9 bytes, so that sounds fine. > > to expand on this: hard disk vendors lie to the customers. when you > buy an "80 GB" disk you actually buy 80 * 1000 ^ 3 (Lowell, I don't think > drive got *that* big yet :), not 80 * 1024 ^ 3. > > American hd buyers might try a class action lawsuit. :)
They don't lie. They use the correct definition of mega and giga. It is just that most other things in computers use the wrong, but for computers more convenient, definition of M = 2^20 and G = 2^30 instead of the correct M = 10^6 and G = 10^9. Since most things in computers, and memory chips in particular, are sized in powers of 2 the 2-based variants are much more convenient for computers, but technically wrong. -- <Insert your favourite quote here.> Erik Trulsson [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe: send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
