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This, from Atomica (www.atomica.com), sums things up nicely:
mebi
(MEgaBInary) 1,048,576. Whereas mega sometimes means 1,000,000 and other
times 1,048,576, mebi always means 1,048,576. The symbol is "Mi," thus,
2 MiB means 2,097,152 bytes or two mebibytes. In order to avoid
confusion between the decimal and binary numbers, the IEC standardized
the terms kibi, mebi, gibi, tebi, pebi and exbi to represent binary
numbers (compared to kilo, mega, giga, tera, peta and exa).
Also see page 4 of this PDF (from the International Electrotechnical
Commission):
Martin Polley
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-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Hirons [mailto:peter -at- softwell -dot- co -dot- uk]
Sent: Thursday, November 28, 2002 4:43 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: Licence or license?
> MiB=mebibyte (2 to the power 20, or 1,048,576 bytes)
>
> Similarly:
>
> KiB=kibibyte (2 to the power 10, or 1,024 bytes)
I've been in electronic engineering for over 30 years (and a technical
writer for 23 of those) and this is the first time I've seen these. Can
you quote a reference please.
In my experience MB nearly always means 1,048,576 bytes (unless it's
written by a hard disk marketing person :-) If it is critical, then
specify which you mean explicitly.
Sometimes k=1000 and K=1,024 (except in job adverts when they both mean
1000)
Peter
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