GiB, KiB, MiB

[Barkotron]

I voted 3, but again, it's not confusing, it's just unnecessary, and comes across as pedantic and frankly a bit pretentious.

I agree with mroz, it's not about being scientifically or technically correct, it's about semantics, specifically, about pushing one set of standards instead of generally understood established useage. It may have a use within the scientific computing community where it's important to be very clear which units are being used (however, even there everyone knows that bits and bytes are counted in base 2, not 10, so if the unit is b or B, then k does mean 1024), but I see absolutely no need for it in a consumer-oriented website.

In any case, as with many things, Dan of Dan's Data probably has the proper take on the matter:

"SI unit enthusiasts have recently managed to kick up a burst of media coverage concerning their campaign to get units of computer memory referred to as "kibibytes", "mebibytes" and "gibibytes". This campaign would seem to me to be doomed to failure, though, partly because those terms sound much the same as the old ones, and partly because they sound silly."

[med2003]

Not confusing, but definitely pedantic.

Why stop there? Why not break it down even further and list how much is addressable/usable by different opearing systems?

[mosfet]

I see absolutely no need for it in a consumer-oriented website.

The system has just as much effect on the consumer as on the producer due to the fact that so many people whinge about being ripped off by hard disk manufacturers, when in fact it's just a case of the same thing having different meanings to different people.

I fail to see how this is pedantic - the IEEE are trying to clear up a mess that benefits no-one, yet the same people who whine and complain about being short changed appear to be the same ones who want everything to stay the same.

[mroz]

but I see absolutely no need for it in a consumer-oriented website."

I'd probably agree if hard drive manufacturers weren't muddying the waters. They are. So consumers need to be told the difference. Either that or drown all the hard drive manufacturers in their own muddy water.

[staffsMike]

That makes perfect sense..but you'll have to forgive as I don't think i'll be able to follow suit..lol

I've known that years but it's not something i care too much about and will no doubt continue to refer to it as 2GB of memory

[Nemz0r]

Keep it as it is - It educates people

What he said. Since visiting Hexus and reading that article a while back i've been using the correct terminology in 90% (sometimes I forget/get lazy) of my posts here and everywhere else on the interweb .

[Toobad]

All I know is I like shiny objects and can lift heavy things.

[arthurleung]

Now the harddrive manufacturers only give me 0.909TiB on my 1.0TB harddrive, ba*tards.
I want my 10% extra space

[Paul Adams]

I'd like to see a poll where people admit whether in conversations they actually say "mebibytes" or "mebs"

[Barkotron]

The system has just as much effect on the consumer as on the producer due to the fact that so many people whinge about being ripped off by hard disk manufacturers, when in fact it's just a case of the same thing having different meanings to different people.

Not really - what should change is the way the hard drive manufacturers report their disk sizes: they're the ones out of step with the rest of the industry.

the same people who whine and complain about being short changed appear to be the same ones who want everything to stay the same.

I really don't understand this at all, it seems to be just random mudslinging. Nobody's whining and complaining.

There should definitely be a change, but instead of forcing everyone to use desperate and clunky neologisms (to my mind, you can stick mebibytes etc. in with "webinar", "blook" and the other phrases mentioned in that article a couple of months back), the marketing departments of the HDD manufacturers should advertise the size of the drives in base 2. It's unlikely, but it's less unlikely than everyone changing to MiB etc, and has the advantage of not making us all sound like "Web 2.0" flapheads when talking about hardware.

[mroz]

I'd like to see a poll where people admit whether in conversations they actually say "mebibytes" or "mebs"

It would depend on who I was talking to, as some people have a hard enough time understanding that their monitor isn't a PC & the big grey box isn't called a hard drive. So the short answer is mebi, mebi not.

[DanceswithUnix]

The datasheet for the 6502 CPU back in the '70s stated that it could access 65KB of ram. This argument will keep running til quantum computers change the rules and give us new arguments

[Agent]

The datasheet for the 6502 CPU back in the '70s stated that it could access 65KB of ram. This argument will keep running til quantum computers change the rules and give us new arguments

So true
I emailed the BBC a few days back correcting them on their article about quantum computers on the website.
Credit to them though, they quickly updated it

Its just so hard to keep up with technology today!

[aidanjt]

I think *iB is more about SI pushing base10 to apply to everything under the sun rather than scientific correctness.

[Rosaline]

I'm happy with using the ibi's in technical writing. Sure, when posting on forums or talking with friends, I'll use megabyte and the like, it simply sounds cooler But when it comes to the detailed technical side of things, preventing false numberings and using the most accurate units always wins in this engineer's book.