24 Feb
2006
24 Feb
'06
1:55 p.m.
On 24 Feb 2006, at 04:15, Holland, William L wrote:
In the "real" world giga = 1 billion in the computing world gig = 1024^3 or 1,073,741,824 bytes.
I think that using binary powers (eg: 1024^3 = 2^30) only makes sense when you're talking about capacity which is addressed through a binary address bus (such as RAM). Devices such as disks are addressed through their geometry, or a logical abstraction of their geometry, and I can understand the preference for using "standard" units rather than binary units.
Of course, if everyone used http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Binary_prefixes when referring to non-SI powers, things would be clearer... dream on...
Colm
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Colm Buckley / colm@tuatha.org / +353 87 2469146 / www.colm.buckley.name