I hear you, Doug, and I understand. But the 8 bits per byte, 2^10, 2^20, 2^30 multipliers are there, for a reason. Maybe the originators of the terminology should have separated the computer-specific (base 2) usage, from the normal SI units usage, but they didn't. 60 years of computer technical jargon isn't going to change, quickly, if at all, and all that introducing the new units (mebi, kibi, gibi, etc.) does, is to introduce _more_ confusion.
The only rule that you need to remember, short of doing what D. Finnigan suggests, is that all _storage_ is in powers of 2. 2^3 bits per byte, 2^10 bytes per kilobyte, etc. Doesn't matter if the storage is temporary, or permanent. There are lots of places where English is possibly unclear, and this is just such a case. If writing, or speaking, where precision is critical, I'd suggest using scientific notation, for units of storage, and defining your units, at the start of the discussion. Just my 0.02. - Alex On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 3:52 PM, Doug McNutt <[email protected]> wrote: > The problem is that we scientists, as opposed to "computer scientists", have > serious difficulty figuring out which usage is in vogue when the context is > not clear. Even within the programmer's world mega means 10^6 when applied to > a frequency or bit rate but 2^20 when applied to memory. What does it mean > when calling out how many memory references per second a bus can handle? > When you ask how much memory is required to store 4 coordinates each for a > gigasample of nuclear particle collisions, precision of speech really matters. > > Do computer types call a bit a decibyte because 8 is almost equal to 10? > What would you call a thousandth of a megabyte? Is a thousand kilobytes still > a megabyte? What is (FFFFF+1) bytes? Is (3FF+1)*(3FF+1) == 1000000(10)? > Hexadecimal would be a less confusing way to describe memory. One can move > the binary point three places right to convert bytes to bits that way. No > painful multiply by 8 in decimal required. > > And perish the thought that the US of A could reduce its debt by redefining > the tera prefix to call it tebi. We do have a 25 cent (2 bit) coin but a 20 > dollar bill. That's a throwback to binary units of the imperial system. > > And PLEASE. use B for byte and b for bit. (actually b is for bell, a unit of > sound pressure), G instead of g (g is the acceleration due to gravity), M > for mega. (m is milli), k for kilo (to avoid confusion with K for Kelvin, a > unit of temperature), but Ki for kibi. -- ----- You received this message because you are a member of the Vintage Macs group. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/vintagemacs.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To leave this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vintage-macs Support for older Macs: http://lowendmac.com/services/
