TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Abbreviation of measures From:"Tamminga, Ernie" <et -at- DSC -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 6 Jun 1997 09:58:02 -0700
...also, by convention in computerdom, a small "b" refers to bits, and a
capital "B" to bytes.
So 16 MB is sixteen megabytes (usually used for expressing such
quantities as memory or storage capacities), while 16 Mb is sixteen
megabits (often used for expressing data-transfer rates).
--------
Ernie Tamminga
Director, InfoEngineering
Digital Sound Corporation
-----------------------------------------------
Opinions expressed are my own, and not necessarily those of Digital
Sound Corporation
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jeanette Feldhousen [SMTP:jeanette_feldhousen -at- MENTORG -dot- COM]
>Sent: Friday, June 06, 1997 9:25 AM
>To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>Subject: Re: Abbreviation of measures
>
>On Jun 6, 8:45am, Mitman, Rikki wrote:
>> Subject: Abbreviation of measures
>> I'm looking for consensus on the abbreviation of things like megabyte
>> and gigabyte, which are typically represented as mb and gb (or, to my
>> dismay, MB, Mb GB, and Gb). To me, these are abbreviations, *not*
>> acronyms, and should not be capped.
>
>In scientific circles, "M" means mega, while "m" means milli, so the capital
>M is correct. Unfortunately I don't have the reference here, so I can't
>give you an answer on giga.
>
>--Jeanette
>
>--
>Jeanette Feldhousen jeanette_feldhousen -at- mentorg -dot- com
>Mentor Graphics Corporation
>8005 SW Boeckman Road, Wilsonville, OR 97070
>
> TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
>to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send commands
> to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
> Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/ or search and
>browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html
TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send commands
to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/ or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html
