I would assert there is no confusion whatsoever, there is only right and wrong. The SI Brochure is clear that the mentioned prefixes are successive powers of 1000 and may NOT be used to represent powers of 1024. IEC introduced the binary prefixes specifically to handle that correctly.
So kilo- means 1000, etc. If it does not, and it was an innocent mistake by the supplier, he should make it good. If he does not, you should assume it is fraud and deception, and sue. Our litigious society has mechanisms to teach suppliers not to make such mistakes (that assumes you can show you actually had monetray damage as a result of his deception). ________________________________ From: Patrick Moore <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, October 14, 2010 9:01:53 AM Subject: [USMA:48661] mebi yes mebi no Copied out of Wikipedia article <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measuring_network_throughput>. I am sure this is no news to most of you. I am intrigued at how a binary technology emulates SI but with a unique assortment of prefixes. Kibi, mebi, gibi, tebi, and pebi prefixes Main article: binary prefix <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix> Kibi, mebi, gibi, tebi, pebi, and exbi are binary prefix multipliers that, in 1998, were approved as a standard by the International Electrotechnical Commission <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Electrotechnical_Commission> (IEC) in an effort to eliminate the confusion that sometimes occurs between decimal (power-of-10) and binary (power-of-2) numeration terms. At present, the prefix multipliers kilo- (k or K), mega- (M), giga- (G), tera- (T), peta- (P), and exa- (E) are ambiguous. In most of the physical sciences, and when describing quantities of objects generally, these multipliers refer to powers of 10. However, when used to define data quantity in terms of bytes, they refer to powers of 2. The following table denotes the most often-used prefixes and their meanings. [A table follows that is difficult to display in e-mail.]
