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Possibly the fact that, for the higher-value
prefixes, the quantities specified are only rough values to start with. If your
computer is said to have 256 gigabytes of memory, you don't really care whether
it's 256 gigabytes or, in fact, 256 gibibytes. The difference between the two
isn't going to affect your planning (or your computer's performance) -- and,
because of the way the memory is structured, you don't get to choose between
those two anyway.
Has anyone seen or heard anymore about the
binary prefixes? What seems to be the reluctance to using
them?
Euric
Binary prefixes
In computing, a custom arose of using the metric prefixes to specify powers
of 2. For example, a kilobit is usually 210 = 1024 bits instead of
1000 bits. This practice leads to considerable confusion. In an effort to
eliminate this confusion, in 1998 the International Electrotechnical
Commission approved new prefixes for the powers of 2. These prefixes are as
follows:
| kibi- |
Ki- |
210 = 1 024 |
| mebi- |
Mi- |
220 = 1 048 576 |
| gibi- |
Gi- |
230 = 1 073 741 824 |
| tebi- |
Ti- |
240 = 1 099 511 627 776 |
| pebi- |
Pi- |
250 = 1 125 899 906 842 624 |
| exbi- |
Ei- |
260 = 1 152 921 504 606 846
976 |
The Commission's ruling is that the metric prefixes should be used in
computing just as they are used in other fields. Thus, 5 gigabytes (GB) should
mean exactly 5 000 000 000 bytes, and 5 gibibytes (GiB) should mean exactly 5
368 709 120 bytes.
The fate of this innovation is uncertain. So far, very few people are using
the IEC binary prefixes. Searches for them on the Internet turn up, for the
most part,
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