2-1. Units for Data

Discussion of metric prefixes applied to data. Focuses on the differences between the IEC standard and common usage.

[Ejeby]

0:30 we don't use powers of 1, 000 but of 1, 024; a kilobyte is 1, 024 bytes, a megabyte is 1, 024 squared bytes, a gigabyte is 1 billion bytes or 1, 024 cubed
1:40 Apple is the exception, uses 1000:1
1:50 devices seem larger on a 1000:1 scale than a 1024:1 scale
2:00 1998 new nomenclature for 1000:1 scale: kibibyte, mebibyte, gibibyte, tebibyte, pebibyte, exbibyte

[johncochran]

I remember as a child when 8 bit computers were new (TRS-80, Apple ][, and the like) seeing an ad for a computer with "Over 65 kilobytes of memory". Yes, some advertiser attempted to use decimal units to define a computer with 65536 bytes of RAM. Unfortunately, the advertisers were successful with that bullshit when it came to disk storage.