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Orders of magnitude of data |
The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. It refers to either 1000 bytes or 1024 bytes, depending on usage and context. The abbreviations for these are kB and KB, respectively, although this distinction is not always observed.
Definitions and usage
1000 bytes
In the International System of Units (SI) the prefix kilo- means 1000 (103); therefore one kilobyte is 1000 bytes in this system. The unit symbol is kB.
This is the definition recommended by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).[1] This definition, and related definitions of prefixes mega- = 1000000, giga- = 1000000000, etc are used for data transfer rates[2] in computer networks, internal bus speeds, hard drive and flash media transfer speeds, etc., and for the capacities of most storage media, particularly hard drives,[3] Flash-based storage,[4] and DVDs. It is also consistent with the other uses of the SI prefixes in computing, such as CPU clock speeds or measures of performance.
The Mac OS X 10.6 file manager is a notable example of this usage in software. Since Snow Leopard, file sizes are reported with decimal prefixes.[5]
1024 bytes
In some fields of information technology, the kilobyte instead refers to 1024 (210) bytes.[6][7][8] This usage originated as compromise jargon for multiples that needed to be expressed in powers of 2, but lacked a convenient unit prefix. As 1024 (210) approximates 1000 (103), the corresponding SI prefixes were used for the multiples that represent powers of 1024.
This definition, and related definitions of mega = 1046576 (=10242), etc., are almost invariably used for random-access memory capacities, such as main memory and CPU cache sizes, due to the binary addressing of memory.[a] These "binary meanings" of kilobyte, megabyte, etc., are also used by Windows and Linux operating systems when reporting disk capacities and file sizes.[9][unreliable source?]
The binary representation of 1024 bytes typically uses the symbol KB (uppercase K). The B is often omitted in informal use: A processor with 65,536 bytes of cache might be said to have "64K" cache.
The kibibyte
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. Thus the kibibyte (KiB) represents 210 = 1024 bytes. The IEC further specified that the kilobyte should only be used to refer to 1000 bytes.[10] These prefixes are now part of the International System of Quantities.
Examples
- The HP 21MX real-time computer (1974) denoted 196,608 (which is 192×1024) as 196K,[11] while the HP 3000 business computer (1973) denoted 131,072 (which is 128×1024) as 128K.[12]
- The Shugart SA-400 51⁄4-inch floppy disk (1976) held 109,375 bytes unformatted,[13] and was advertised as 110 Kbyte, using the 1000 convention.[14] Likewise, the 8-inch DEC RX01 floppy (1975) held 256,256 bytes formatted, and was advertised as 256k.[15] On the other hand, the Tandon 51⁄4-inch DD floppy format (1978) held 368,640 (which is 360×1024) bytes, but was advertised as 360 KB, following the 1024 convention.
- On modern systems, Microsoft Windows 7 divides by 1024 and represent a 65,536-byte file as 64 KB.[16] while Mac OS X Snow Leopard represents this as 66 kB, rounding to the nearest 1000 bytes.[17]
See also
- History of the floppy disk
- Binary prefix
- Timeline of binary prefixes
- Gigabyte § Consumer confusion
- JEDEC memory standards § Unit prefixes for semiconductor storage capacity
- Units of information § Size examples
Notes
References
- ^ Prefixes for Binary Multiples — The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty
- ^ Conversion of Data Transfer Rate Units
- ^ 1977 Disk/Trend Report Rigid Disk Drives, published June 1977
- ^ SanDisk USB Flash Drive "Note: 1 megabyte (MB) = 1 million bytes; 1 gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes."
- ^ "How Mac OS X reports drive capacity". Apple Inc. 2009-08-27. Retrieved 2009-10-16.
- ^ Kilobyte – Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Merriam-webster.com (2010-08-13). Retrieved on 2011-01-07.
- ^ Kilobyte | Define Kilobyte at Dictionary.com. Dictionary.reference.com (1995-09-29). Retrieved on 2011-01-07.
- ^ definition of kilobyte from Oxford Dictionaries Online. Askoxford.com. Retrieved on 2011-01-07.
- ^ Sharma, Kapil; Mohammed J.; Norton, Peter C. Norton; Good, Nathan; Steidler-Dennison, Tony (2005). Professional Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3. John Wiley & Sons. p. 134.
Disk manufacturers sell you their disks saying that a kilobyte is 1,000 bytes, that a megabyte is a thousand of those, and that a gigabyte is another thousand of those, giving you 1,000,000,000 bytes to a gigabyte when you buy a disk. The rest of the computer world, including the programmers who write Linux, thinks of a kilobyte as 1,024 bytes (2^10 bytes), a megabyte as 1,048,576 bytes (2^20), and a gigabyte as 1,073,741,824 bytes (2^30), which means that you're buying just a bit less than you might think.
- ^ National Institute of Standards and Technology. "Prefixes for binary multiples". "In December 1998 the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) [...] approved as an IEC International Standard names and symbols for prefixes for binary multiples for use in the fields of data processing and data transmission."
- ^ Frankenberg, Robert (October 1974). "All Semiconductor Memory Selected for New Minicomputer Series" (PDF). Hewlett-Packard Journal (Hewlett-Packard) 26 (2): pg 15–20. Retrieved 2007-06-18.
196K-word memory size
- ^ Hewlett-Packard (November 1973). "HP 3000 Configuration Guide" (PDF). HP 3000 Computer System and Subsystem Data: pg 59. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
- ^ "SA400 minifloppy". Swtpc.com. 2013-08-14. Retrieved 2014-03-25.
- ^ http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/SA400/SA400_Datasheet.pdf
- ^ http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/disc/rx01/EK-RX01-MM-002_maint_Dec76.pdf
- ^ "Determining Actual Disk Size: Why 1.44 MB Should Be 1.40 MB". Support.microsoft.com. 2003-05-06. Retrieved 2014-03-25.
- ^ "How OS X and iOS report storage capacity". Support.apple.com. 2013-07-01. Retrieved 2014-03-25.
- "Terms, Definitions, and Letter Symbols for Microcomputers, Microprocessors, and Memory Integrated Circuits". JEDEC Solid State Technology Association. December 2002. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
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