In 1995, the National Institute of Standards & Technology defined a new standard of measurement that accurately reflects the difference between decimal and binary numbers. The traditional kilo, mega, giga, etc. designations were changed to kibi, mebi, gibi and so on (see table below) when referring to true binary numbers.
For example, one million bytes would be expressed as one "megabyte" (MB) for the decimal number 1,000,000 (106), but one "mebibyte" (MiB) for the binary number 1,048,576 (220).
Will It Catch On?
After more than a decade, NIST measurements have not become mainstream, but are used when absolute precision is required. See binary values.
For example, one million bytes would be expressed as one "megabyte" (MB) for the decimal number 1,000,000 (106), but one "mebibyte" (MiB) for the binary number 1,048,576 (220).
Will It Catch On?
After more than a decade, NIST measurements have not become mainstream, but are used when absolute precision is required. See binary values.
Decimal Binary kilobit (Kb) kibibit (Kib) Kilo bInary bit megabit (Mb) mebibit (Mib) Mega bInary bit gigabit (Gb) gibibit (Gib) Giga bInary bit terabit (Tb) tebibit (Tib) Tera bInary bit petabit (Tb) pebibit (Pib) Peta bInary bit exabit (Eb) exbibit (Eib) Exa bInary bit zettabit (Zb) zebibit (Zib) Zetta bInary bit yottabit (Yb) yobibit (Yib) Yotta bInary bit kilobyte (KB) kibibyte (KiB) Kilo bInary Byte megabyte (MB) mebibyte (MiB) Mega bInary Byte gigabyte (GB) gibibyte (GiB) Giga bInary Byte terabyte (TB) tebibyte (TiB) Tera bInary Byte petabyte (TB) pebibyte (PiB) Peta bInary Byte exabyte (EB) exbibyte (EiB) Exa bInary Byte zettabyte (ZB) zebibyte (ZiB) Zetta bInary Byte yottabyte (YB) yobibyte (YiB) Yotta bInary Byte
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2009 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
Additional Resources
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