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NadirPointing t1_iy8rsj2 wrote

Reply to comment by dr_xenon in Eli5 Why there arent like 20gb USBs instead each usb has twice as much as the previous(8gb,16gb,32gb,64gb,128gb by nightmarebg69

you are thinking of kibibyte (KiB), kilobyte is indeed 1000 bytes.

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thejml2000 t1_iy8t701 wrote

For others here (from): > In December 1998, the IEC addressed such multiple usages and definitions by creating prefixes such as kibi, mebi, gibi, etc., to unambiguously denote powers of 1024.[10] Thus the kibibyte, symbol KiB, represents 2^10 bytes = 1024 bytes. These prefixes are now part of the IEC 80000-13 standard. The IEC further specified that the kilobyte should only be used to refer to 1000 bytes. The International System of Units restricts the use of the SI prefixes strictly to powers of 10.

Also: The ISO/IEC 80000 family of standards was completed with the publication of Part 1 in November 2009.

For us old timers (and a lot of documentation), KiB is still new. Indeed, KB is still said used to reference 1024 bases instead of kB which is 1000… and that’s why that IEC 80000-13 was published, to clear up that confusion and add KiB as a documented and remove ambiguity. It didn’t matter so much with low amounts, (64000 vs 65536 bytes for instance) but now that it’s used for petabytes, it’s kind of a big difference.

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bitchface-hatchling t1_iy8w4tt wrote

This is correct I feel.

However, colloquially, GB is expanded to Gigabytes and hence would mean 1024 Kilobytes. There is also a difference between how the manufacturers build storage and how it is sold. The manufacturers still build storage in multiples of 1000s. So a 1 GB drive would have 1000 MBs, each of which would have 1000 KBs, each of which would have 1000 bytes. But the calculated capacity is then based on binary notations; (110001000*1000)/1024/1024/1024. You would have noticed this. A 1 GB storage drive only comes with ~953 MB of storage.

At least this is what I remember from my CS class.

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frustrated_staff t1_iy8yud5 wrote

>n December 1998, the IEC addressed such multiple usages and definitions by creating prefixes such as kibi, mebi, gibi, etc., to unambiguously denote powers of 1024.[10] Thus the kibibyte, symbol KiB, represents 210 bytes = 1024 bytes. These prefixes are now part of the IEC 80000-13 standard. The IEC further specified that the kilobyte should only be used to refer to 1000 bytes. The International System of Units restricts the use of the SI prefixes strictly to powers of 10.

For us old timers, this is about as useful as the IAU saying that Pluto is not a planet. They can go f*** themselves

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ZylonBane t1_iy8yarc wrote

Kibblebytes can fuck right off. A kilobyte will be 1024 bytes until the day I die.

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NadirPointing t1_iy8zvbl wrote

Prepare for disappointment when getting a harddrive.

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belugwhal t1_iy92b7d wrote

Anyone who works closely enough with computers to have an opinion on this understands that a one GB hard drive actually provides less storage space than one (proper) GB. I'm with ZylonBane. They should have made 1000 bytes a kibibyte (therefore releasing most of us from having to use it) and left kilobyte alone as the proper term. If anything I will use kB or KB but not KiB. That's just silly.

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