Re: GB vs. MB (End this thread!)

H. Peter Anvin (hpa@transmeta.com)
6 Dec 1996 05:13:02 GMT

Followup to: <96Dec4.133220-0500_est.213206-252+382@vger.rutgers.edu>
By author: "Ray Van Tassle-CRV004" <Ray_Van_Tassle-CRV004@email.mot.com>
In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel
>
> The problem here is STANDARDS and CONVENTIONS.
> Even though many of us may think that the defacto industry convention
> (1GB = 1000 MB) is wrong, and should be "1GB = 1024 MB", we are pissing into
> the wind.
> Let's try to stay with the mainstream.
>
> A wise man told me once, "Pick your battles. If you persist on spending too
> much effort on little things that aren't really that important, you won't
> have the strength/credibility for the things that ARE important."
>

Bull. Standard and convention is: 1 GB = 2^30 bytes; 1 MB = 2^20
bytes. Hard drive manufacturers *only* (not semiconductor memory
manufacturers!) have recently tried to define 1 GB as either
10^3 * 2^20, 10^6 * 2^10 or 10^9 bytes. This is just silly to go
along with, especially since they can't even make up their minds
(although I suspect most of them are going towards 10^9 since it is
the smallest.)

However, in the memory arena there has never been any doubt that
1 GB = 2^30 bytes and 1 MB = 2^20 bytes. That is the only standard,
the rest is just marketing hype.

-hpa

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