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against deprecation subsection</span> </button> <ul id="toc-The_case_against_deprecation-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> <li id="toc-Background_information" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Background_information"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">1.1</span> <span>Background information</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Background_information-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Why_Wikipedia_should_not_deprecate_the_use_of_IEC_prefixes" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Why_Wikipedia_should_not_deprecate_the_use_of_IEC_prefixes"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">1.2</span> <span>Why Wikipedia should not deprecate the use of IEC prefixes</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Why_Wikipedia_should_not_deprecate_the_use_of_IEC_prefixes-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-See_also" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#See_also"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">1.3</span> <span>See also</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-See_also-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Footnotes" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Footnotes"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">1.4</span> <span>Footnotes</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Footnotes-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="mw-content-container"> <main id="content" class="mw-body"> <header class="mw-body-header vector-page-titlebar"> <nav aria-label="Contents" class="vector-toc-landmark"> <div id="vector-page-titlebar-toc" class="vector-dropdown vector-page-titlebar-toc vector-button-flush-left" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" 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It allows adding a reason in the summary.">undo</a></span></strong></div><div id="mw-diff-ntitle2"><a href="/wiki/User:Dondervogel_2" class="mw-userlink" title="User:Dondervogel 2" data-mw-revid="989878189"><bdi>Dondervogel 2</bdi></a> <span class="mw-usertoollinks">(<a href="/wiki/User_talk:Dondervogel_2" class="mw-usertoollinks-talk" title="User talk:Dondervogel 2">talk</a> | <a href="/wiki/Special:Contributions/Dondervogel_2" class="mw-usertoollinks-contribs" title="Special:Contributions/Dondervogel 2">contribs</a>)</span><div class="mw-diff-usermetadata"><div class="mw-diff-userroles"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Extended_confirmed_editors" class="mw-redirect" title="Wikipedia:Extended confirmed editors">Extended confirmed users</a></div><div class="mw-diff-usereditcount"><span>17,285</span> edits</div></div></div><div id="mw-diff-ntitle3"><abbr class="minoredit" title="This is a minor edit">m</abbr> <span class="comment comment--without-parentheses"><span class="autocomment"><a href="#Background_information">→<bdi dir="ltr">Background information</bdi></a>: </span> K vs k</span></div><div id="mw-diff-ntitle5"></div><div id="mw-diff-ntitle4"><a href="/w/index.php?title=User:Thunderbird2/The_case_against_deprecation_of_IEC_prefixes&diff=next&oldid=989878189" title="User:Thunderbird2/The case against deprecation of IEC prefixes" id="differences-nextlink">Next edit →</a></div></td> </tr><tr> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 4:</td> <td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 4:</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="diff-marker"></td> <td class="diff-context diff-side-deleted"><div>* In most contexts the prefixes [[kilo-]], [[mega-]] and [[giga-]] mean 1 thousand, 1 million and 1 ([[Long_and_short_scales|short scale]]) [[billion]], respectively, as in one kilogram = one thousand [[gram]]s, one megajoule = one million [[joule]]s and one gigawatt = one billion [[watt]]s. In symbols: 1 kg = 1,000 g; 1 MJ = 1,000,000 J; 1 GW = 1,000,000,000 W.</div></td> <td class="diff-marker"></td> <td class="diff-context diff-side-added"><div>* In most contexts the prefixes [[kilo-]], [[mega-]] and [[giga-]] mean 1 thousand, 1 million and 1 ([[Long_and_short_scales|short scale]]) [[billion]], respectively, as in one kilogram = one thousand [[gram]]s, one megajoule = one million [[joule]]s and one gigawatt = one billion [[watt]]s. In symbols: 1 kg = 1,000 g; 1 MJ = 1,000,000 J; 1 GW = 1,000,000,000 W.</div></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="diff-marker"></td> <td class="diff-context diff-side-deleted"><div>* In computer science the units [[kilobyte]], [[megabyte]] and [[gigabyte]] (symbols kB, MB and GB) were [[Timeline_of_binary_prefixes|originally used]] in this standard [[SI prefix|decimal sense]] to mean 1,000 and 1,000,000 and 1,000,000,000 bytes, respectively. In symbols: 1 kB = 1000 B; 1 MB = 1000<sup>2</sup> B; 1 GB = 1000<sup>3</sup> B.</div></td> <td class="diff-marker"></td> <td class="diff-context diff-side-added"><div>* In computer science the units [[kilobyte]], [[megabyte]] and [[gigabyte]] (symbols kB, MB and GB) were [[Timeline_of_binary_prefixes|originally used]] in this standard [[SI prefix|decimal sense]] to mean 1,000 and 1,000,000 and 1,000,000,000 bytes, respectively. In symbols: 1 kB = 1000 B; 1 MB = 1000<sup>2</sup> B; 1 GB = 1000<sup>3</sup> B.</div></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="diff-marker" data-marker="−"></td> <td class="diff-deletedline diff-side-deleted"><div>* However, in modern use (and depending on the context), the same three symbols sometimes have a [[binary prefix|binary meaning]]. The binary definitions of these three symbols are 1 KB = 1024 B;<ref>the binary meaning of kB is often written KB</ref> 1 MB = 1024<sup>2</sup> B;<ref>[[megabyte|MB]] even has a third meaning, equal to 1000 KiB or 1,024,000 B</ref> 1 GB = 1024<sup>3</sup> B.</div></td> <td class="diff-marker" data-marker="+"></td> <td class="diff-addedline diff-side-added"><div>* However, in modern use (and depending on the context), the same three symbols sometimes have a [[binary prefix|binary meaning]]. The binary definitions of these three symbols are 1 KB = 1024 B;<ref>the binary meaning of kB is often written KB</ref> 1 MB = 1024<sup>2</sup> B;<ref>[[megabyte|MB]] even has a third meaning, equal to 1000 KiB or 1,024,000 B</ref> 1 GB = 1024<sup>3</sup> B<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">. In this context it is customary to use an upper case "K" instead of the SI prefix "k", for kilo</ins>.</div></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="diff-marker"></td> <td class="diff-context diff-side-deleted"><div>*The computer itself does not account for the number of bytes using binary prefixes, but someone in the 1980s decided to report memory, file and HDD size in this manner. As such, the use of binary prefixes is only a convention. Altering this convention to agree with SI Prefixes such as in [http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2419?viewlocale=en_US Apple's 2009 "Snow Leopard" release] and [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UnitsPolicy Ubuntu] could have been done at any time; however, for some reason it just stuck this way for much of the computer industry.<ref>[http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10330509-263.html Snow Leopard changes how file and drive sizes are calculated]</ref></div></td> <td class="diff-marker"></td> <td class="diff-context diff-side-added"><div>*The computer itself does not account for the number of bytes using binary prefixes, but someone in the 1980s decided to report memory, file and HDD size in this manner. As such, the use of binary prefixes is only a convention. Altering this convention to agree with SI Prefixes such as in [http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2419?viewlocale=en_US Apple's 2009 "Snow Leopard" release] and [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UnitsPolicy Ubuntu] could have been done at any time; however, for some reason it just stuck this way for much of the computer industry.<ref>[http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10330509-263.html Snow Leopard changes how file and drive sizes are calculated]</ref></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="diff-marker"></td> <td class="diff-context diff-side-deleted"><div>* For many applications (primarily the storage capacity of [[hard disk drive]]s and [[data rate]]s for telecommunications), the decimal convention is retained, whereby one kilobit is exactly one thousand bits and one megabyte is exactly one million bytes.<ref>According to the [http://www.idema.org/_smartsite/modules/local/data_file/show_file.php?cmd=download&data_file_id=1066 LBA Count for IDE Hard Disk Drives Standard] from the website of the International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association [http://www.idema.org/_smartsite/modules/local/data_file/show_file.php?cmd=standards&cat=103&h=1# (IDEMA)], there are 1,000,194,048 bytes (1,953,504 logical blocks x 512 bytes/logical block) per nominal gigabyte of hard drive storage.</ref> </div></td> <td class="diff-marker"></td> <td class="diff-context diff-side-added"><div>* For many applications (primarily the storage capacity of [[hard disk drive]]s and [[data rate]]s for telecommunications), the decimal convention is retained, whereby one kilobit is exactly one thousand bits and one megabyte is exactly one million bytes.<ref>According to the [http://www.idema.org/_smartsite/modules/local/data_file/show_file.php?cmd=download&data_file_id=1066 LBA Count for IDE Hard Disk Drives Standard] from the website of the International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association [http://www.idema.org/_smartsite/modules/local/data_file/show_file.php?cmd=standards&cat=103&h=1# (IDEMA)], there are 1,000,194,048 bytes (1,953,504 logical blocks x 512 bytes/logical block) per nominal gigabyte of hard drive storage.</ref> </div></td> </tr> </table><hr class='diff-hr' id='mw-oldid' /> <h2 class='diff-currentversion-title'>Revision as of 15:16, 21 November 2020</h2> <div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="The_case_against_deprecation">The case against deprecation</h2></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Background_information">Background information</h3></div> <table style="text-align: left; float:right; clear:right; margin-left:1em; border:1px #aaa solid; font-size:88%;"> <tbody><tr> <th colspan="2" style="background-color:#ccf;padding-left:3em;padding-right:1em;text-align:center;"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1129693374">.mw-parser-output .hlist dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul{margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt,.mw-parser-output .hlist li{margin:0;display:inline}.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist.inline ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist dl ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol ul,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul ul{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .hlist .mw-empty-li{display:none}.mw-parser-output .hlist dt::after{content:": "}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist li::after{content:" · ";font-weight:bold}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist li:last-child::after{content:none}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd dd:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dd dt:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dd li:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt dd:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt dt:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt li:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist li dd:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist li dt:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist li li:first-child::before{content:" (";font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd dd:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dd dt:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dd li:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt dd:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt dt:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt li:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist li dd:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist li dt:last-child::after,.mw-parser-output .hlist li li:last-child::after{content:")";font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .hlist ol{counter-reset:listitem}.mw-parser-output .hlist ol>li{counter-increment:listitem}.mw-parser-output .hlist ol>li::before{content:" "counter(listitem)"\a0 "}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd ol>li:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt ol>li:first-child::before,.mw-parser-output .hlist li ol>li:first-child::before{content:" ("counter(listitem)"\a0 "}</style><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239400231">.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:inline;font-size:88%;font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .navbar-collapse{float:left;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .navbar-boxtext{word-spacing:0}.mw-parser-output .navbar ul{display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;line-height:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::before{margin-right:-0.125em;content:"[ "}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::after{margin-left:-0.125em;content:" ]"}.mw-parser-output .navbar li{word-spacing:-0.125em}.mw-parser-output .navbar a>span,.mw-parser-output .navbar a>abbr{text-decoration:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-mini abbr{font-variant:small-caps;border-bottom:none;text-decoration:none;cursor:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-full{font-size:114%;margin:0 7em}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-mini{font-size:114%;margin:0 4em}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .navbar li a abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}@media(prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .navbar li a abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}}@media print{.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:none!important}}</style><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini" style="margin-right:0;width:auto;float:right;"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:Quantities_of_bytes" title="Template:Quantities of bytes"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Quantities_of_bytes" title="Template talk:Quantities of bytes"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:Quantities_of_bytes" title="Special:EditPage/Template:Quantities of bytes"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div> <span style="font-size:120%;"><a href="/wiki/Byte#Multiple-byte_units" title="Byte">Multiple-byte units</a></span> </th></tr> <tr> <td style="padding:0"> <table style="border:1px #aaa solid"> <tbody><tr> <th colspan="3" style="background-color:#ccf; text-align:center;"><a href="/wiki/Decimal" title="Decimal">Decimal</a> </th></tr> <tr> <th style="background-color:#ddf; text-align:center; padding:0;">Value </th> <th colspan="2" style="background-color:#ddf; text-align:center; padding:0"><a href="/wiki/Metric_prefix" title="Metric prefix">Metric</a> </th></tr> <tr> <td>1000 </td> <td>kB</td> <td><a href="/wiki/Kilobyte" title="Kilobyte">kilobyte</a> </td></tr> <tr> <td>1000<sup>2</sup> </td> <td>MB</td> <td><a href="/wiki/Megabyte" title="Megabyte">megabyte</a> </td></tr> <tr> <td>1000<sup>3</sup> </td> <td>GB</td> <td><a href="/wiki/Gigabyte" title="Gigabyte">gigabyte</a> </td></tr> <tr> <td>1000<sup>4</sup> </td> <td>TB</td> <td>terabyte </td></tr> <tr> <td>1000<sup>5</sup> </td> <td>PB</td> <td>petabyte </td></tr> <tr> <td>1000<sup>6</sup> </td> <td>EB</td> <td>exabyte </td></tr> <tr> <td>1000<sup>7</sup> </td> <td>ZB</td> <td>zettabyte </td></tr> <tr> <td>1000<sup>8</sup> </td> <td>YB</td> <td>yottabyte </td></tr> <tr> <td>1000<sup>9</sup> </td> <td>RB</td> <td>ronnabyte </td></tr> <tr> <td>1000<sup>10</sup> </td> <td>QB</td> <td>quettabyte </td></tr></tbody></table> </td> <td style="padding:0"> <table style="border: 1px #aaa solid"> <tbody><tr> <th colspan="5" style="background-color:#ccf; text-align:center;"><a href="/wiki/Binary_prefix" title="Binary prefix">Binary</a> </th></tr> <tr> <th style="background-color:#ddf; text-align:center; padding:0;">Value </th> <th colspan="2" style="background-color:#ddf; text-align:center; padding:0"><a href="/wiki/IEC_80000-13" class="mw-redirect" title="IEC 80000-13">IEC</a> </th> <th colspan="2" style="background-color:#ddf; text-align:center; padding:0"><a href="/wiki/JEDEC_memory_standards#Unit_prefixes_for_semiconductor_storage_capacity" title="JEDEC memory standards"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1038841319">'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-00000005-QINU`"'</style><span class="rt-commentedText tooltip tooltip-dotted" title="Size of directly addressable memory is historically denoted with KB, MB, etc., to mean binary multiples.">Memory</span></a> </th></tr> <tr> <td>1024 </td> <td>KiB</td> <td>kibibyte </td> <td>KB</td> <td>kilobyte </td></tr> <tr> <td>1024<sup>2</sup> </td> <td>MiB</td> <td>mebibyte </td> <td>MB</td> <td>megabyte </td></tr> <tr> <td>1024<sup>3</sup> </td> <td>GiB</td> <td>gibibyte </td> <td>GB</td> <td>gigabyte </td></tr> <tr> <td>1024<sup>4</sup> </td> <td>TiB</td> <td>tebibyte </td> <td>TB</td> <td>terabyte </td></tr> <tr> <td>1024<sup>5</sup> </td> <td>PiB</td> <td>pebibyte </td> <td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">— </td></tr> <tr> <td>1024<sup>6</sup> </td> <td>EiB</td> <td>exbibyte </td> <td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">— </td></tr> <tr> <td>1024<sup>7</sup> </td> <td>ZiB</td> <td>zebibyte </td> <td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">— </td></tr> <tr> <td>1024<sup>8</sup> </td> <td>YiB</td> <td>yobibyte </td> <td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">— </td></tr> <tr> <td colspan="5" style="text-align: center;">— </td></tr> <tr> <td colspan="5" style="text-align: center;">— </td></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr> <tr> <td colspan="5" style="background-color:#ddf;text-align:center;"><a href="/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(data)" title="Orders of magnitude (data)">Orders of magnitude of data</a> </td></tr></tbody></table> <ul><li>In most contexts the prefixes <a href="/wiki/Kilo-" title="Kilo-">kilo-</a>, <a href="/wiki/Mega-" title="Mega-">mega-</a> and <a href="/wiki/Giga-" title="Giga-">giga-</a> mean 1 thousand, 1 million and 1 (<a href="/wiki/Long_and_short_scales" title="Long and short scales">short scale</a>) <a href="/wiki/Billion" title="Billion">billion</a>, respectively, as in one kilogram = one thousand <a href="/wiki/Gram" title="Gram">grams</a>, one megajoule = one million <a href="/wiki/Joule" title="Joule">joules</a> and one gigawatt = one billion <a href="/wiki/Watt" title="Watt">watts</a>. In symbols: 1 kg = 1,000 g; 1 MJ = 1,000,000 J; 1 GW = 1,000,000,000 W.</li> <li>In computer science the units <a href="/wiki/Kilobyte" title="Kilobyte">kilobyte</a>, <a href="/wiki/Megabyte" title="Megabyte">megabyte</a> and <a href="/wiki/Gigabyte" title="Gigabyte">gigabyte</a> (symbols kB, MB and GB) were <a href="/wiki/Timeline_of_binary_prefixes" title="Timeline of binary prefixes">originally used</a> in this standard <a href="/wiki/SI_prefix" class="mw-redirect" title="SI prefix">decimal sense</a> to mean 1,000 and 1,000,000 and 1,000,000,000 bytes, respectively. In symbols: 1 kB = 1000 B; 1 MB = 1000<sup>2</sup> B; 1 GB = 1000<sup>3</sup> B.</li> <li>However, in modern use (and depending on the context), the same three symbols sometimes have a <a href="/wiki/Binary_prefix" title="Binary prefix">binary meaning</a>. The binary definitions of these three symbols are 1 KB = 1024 B;<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> 1 MB = 1024<sup>2</sup> B;<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> 1 GB = 1024<sup>3</sup> B. In this context it is customary to use an upper case "K" instead of the SI prefix "k", for kilo.</li> <li>The computer itself does not account for the number of bytes using binary prefixes, but someone in the 1980s decided to report memory, file and HDD size in this manner. As such, the use of binary prefixes is only a convention. Altering this convention to agree with SI Prefixes such as in <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2419?viewlocale=en_US">Apple's 2009 "Snow Leopard" release</a> and <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UnitsPolicy">Ubuntu</a> could have been done at any time; however, for some reason it just stuck this way for much of the computer industry.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li> <li>For many applications (primarily the storage capacity of <a href="/wiki/Hard_disk_drive" title="Hard disk drive">hard disk drives</a> and <a href="/wiki/Data_rate" title="Data rate">data rates</a> for telecommunications), the decimal convention is retained, whereby one kilobit is exactly one thousand bits and one megabyte is exactly one million bytes.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li> <li>There are many WP articles in which the same symbol (eg MB) is used with two different meanings, often jumping between them in the same paragraph or section, sometimes even in the same sentence. This dual use creates confusion and a corresponding need to disambiguate.</li> <li>These ambiguous usages are common beyond Wikipedia and have led to<a href="/wiki/Binary_prefix#Legal_disputes" title="Binary prefix"> litigation</a>.</li> <li>Problems get successively worse with higher values prefixes <a href="/wiki/Tera-" class="mw-redirect" title="Tera-">tera-</a> (1000<sup>4</sup> vs 1024<sup>4</sup>), <a href="/wiki/Peta-" class="mw-redirect" title="Peta-">peta-</a> (1000<sup>5</sup> vs 1024<sup>5</sup>), etc. The highest value SI prefix is <a href="/wiki/Yotta-" class="mw-redirect" title="Yotta-">yotta-</a>, meaning 1000<sup>8</sup>. The binary prefix yobi- means 1024<sup>8</sup> (≈1.21×10<sup>24</sup>), which differs by 21% from the conventional decimal interpretation of yotta-.</li> <li>In December 1998, in an attempt to resolve the ambiguity the <a href="/wiki/International_Electrotechnical_Commission" title="International Electrotechnical Commission">International Electrotechnical Commission</a> (IEC) introduced a new set of prefixes <a href="/wiki/Kibi-" class="mw-redirect" title="Kibi-">kibi-</a>, <a href="/wiki/Mebi-" class="mw-redirect" title="Mebi-">mebi-</a> and <a href="/wiki/Gibi-" class="mw-redirect" title="Gibi-">gibi-</a> for the binary meanings, with symbols Ki-, Mi- and Gi- so that 1 KiB (one <a href="/wiki/Kibibyte" class="mw-redirect" title="Kibibyte">kibibyte</a>) = 1024 B, 1 MiB (one <a href="/wiki/Mebibyte" class="mw-redirect" title="Mebibyte">mebibyte</a>) = 1024<sup>2</sup> B and 1 GiB (one <a href="/wiki/Gibibyte" class="mw-redirect" title="Gibibyte">gibibyte</a>) = 1024<sup>3</sup> B. In the IEC standard, the prefixes kilo-, mega- etc are reserved for their original decimal meanings.</li> <li>In March 2005, the IEC prefixes were adopted by the <a href="/wiki/Institute_of_Electrical_and_Electronics_Engineers" title="Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers">Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers</a> (IEEE) after a two-year trial period.</li> <li>The use of IEC prefixes has been approved by national and international standards bodies, including, in addition to IEC and IEEE, the <a href="/wiki/International_Bureau_of_Weights_and_Measures" title="International Bureau of Weights and Measures">International Bureau of Weights and Measures</a> (the standards body responsible for the <a href="/wiki/SI" class="mw-redirect" title="SI">SI</a> system of units), the <a href="/wiki/European_Committee_for_Electrotechnical_Standardization" title="European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization">European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization</a> (CENELEC) and the US <a href="/wiki/NIST" class="mw-redirect" title="NIST">National Institute of Standards and Technology</a>.</li> <li>The binary prefixes defined by the IEC are now incorporated in the <a href="/wiki/ISO/IEC_80000" title="ISO/IEC 80000">International System of Quantities</a> (ISQ).</li> <li>The alternative (binary use of SI-like prefixes) is deprecated by the same standards bodies.</li> <li>Use of IEC prefixes in popular literature is rare, making them unfamiliar to many readers. Their use in scientific publications increased from fewer than 15 per year on first introduction to more than 350 per year in the late 2010s: <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=MiB+GiB+-bose-einstein+-antibiotic+-antibody+-Auftragsarbeit+-basal-cell+-Bitplanes+-bremsstrahlung+-dialektischer+-empfehle+-german-lieder+-Gib-mir+-gibraltar+-Golossanov+-heinonline+-immunostaining+-international-law+-LPIB+-Loudless+-mib-majeur+-MII+-paleontology+-penicillin+-petroleum-provinces+-photogrammetric+-polyisobutylene+-simpsons-comics+-supercavitating+-telomerase+-tumors+-Selbstmorde+-Shinagawa+-SIB-algorithm+-Australian-Geological-Survey+-bremsstrahlung-amplitude+-Gib-mir-zu+-Gib-uns-auch+-Gravitation-index+-Management-Information-Base+-Men-in-Black+-mib-anxhlieflender+-military-intelligence-bureau+-tar-heel-state&as_ylo=1999&as_yhi=2001&btnG=Search">1999-2001 (ca. 30 hits)</a>; <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=MiB+GiB+-bose-einstein+-antibiotic+-antibody+-Auftragsarbeit+-basal-cell+-Bitplanes+-bremsstrahlung+-dialektischer+-empfehle+-german-lieder+-Gib-mir+-gibraltar+-Golossanov+-heinonline+-immunostaining+-international-law+-LPIB+-Loudless+-mib-majeur+-MII+-paleontology+-penicillin+-petroleum-provinces+-photogrammetric+-polyisobutylene+-simpsons-comics+-supercavitating+-telomerase+-tumors+-Selbstmorde+-Shinagawa+-SIB-algorithm+-Australian-Geological-Survey+-bremsstrahlung-amplitude+-Gib-mir-zu+-Gib-uns-auch+-Gravitation-index+-Management-Information-Base+-Men-in-Black+-mib-anxhlieflender+-military-intelligence-bureau+-tar-heel-state&as_ylo=2002&as_yhi=2004&btnG=Search">2002-2004 (60 hits)</a>; <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=MiB+GiB+-bose-einstein+-antibiotic+-antibody+-Auftragsarbeit+-basal-cell+-Bitplanes+-bremsstrahlung+-dialektischer+-empfehle+-german-lieder+-Gib-mir+-gibraltar+-Golossanov+-heinonline+-immunostaining+-international-law+-LPIB+-Loudless+-mib-majeur+-MII+-paleontology+-penicillin+-petroleum-provinces+-photogrammetric+-polyisobutylene+-simpsons-comics+-supercavitating+-telomerase+-tumors+-Selbstmorde+-Shinagawa+-SIB-algorithm+-Australian-Geological-Survey+-bremsstrahlung-amplitude+-Gib-mir-zu+-Gib-uns-auch+-Gravitation-index+-Management-Information-Base+-Men-in-Black+-mib-anxhlieflender+-military-intelligence-bureau+-tar-heel-state&as_ylo=2005&as_yhi=2007&btnG=Search">2005-2007 (160 hits)</a>; <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=MiB+GiB+-bose-einstein+-antibiotic+-antibody+-Auftragsarbeit+-basal-cell+-Bitplanes+-bremsstrahlung+-dialektischer+-empfehle+-german-lieder+-Gib-mir+-gibraltar+-Golossanov+-heinonline+-immunostaining+-international-law+-LPIB+-Loudless+-mib-majeur+-MII+-paleontology+-penicillin+-petroleum-provinces+-photogrammetric+-polyisobutylene+-simpsons-comics+-supercavitating+-telomerase+-tumors+-Selbstmorde+-Shinagawa+-SIB-algorithm+-Australian-Geological-Survey+-bremsstrahlung-amplitude+-Gib-mir-zu+-Gib-uns-auch+-Gravitation-index+-Management-Information-Base+-Men-in-Black+-mib-anxhlieflender+-military-intelligence-bureau+-tar-heel-state&as_ylo=2008&as_yhi=2010&btnG=Search">2008-2010 (370 hits)</a>; <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=MiB+GiB+-bose-einstein+-antibiotic+-antibody+-Auftragsarbeit+-basal-cell+-Bitplanes+-bremsstrahlung+-dialektischer+-empfehle+-german-lieder+-Gib-mir+-gibraltar+-Golossanov+-heinonline+-immunostaining+-international-law+-LPIB+-Loudless+-mib-majeur+-MII+-paleontology+-penicillin+-petroleum-provinces+-photogrammetric+-polyisobutylene+-simpsons-comics+-supercavitating+-telomerase+-tumors+-Selbstmorde+-Shinagawa+-SIB-algorithm+-Australian-Geological-Survey+-bremsstrahlung-amplitude+-Gib-mir-zu+-Gib-uns-auch+-Gravitation-index+-Management-Information-Base+-Men-in-Black+-mib-anxhlieflender+-military-intelligence-bureau+-tar-heel-state&as_ylo=2011&as_yhi=2013&btnG=Search">2011-2013 (670 hits)</a>; <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=MiB+GiB+-bose-einstein+-antibiotic+-antibody+-Auftragsarbeit+-basal-cell+-Bitplanes+-bremsstrahlung+-dialektischer+-empfehle+-german-lieder+-Gib-mir+-gibraltar+-Golossanov+-heinonline+-immunostaining+-international-law+-LPIB+-Loudless+-mib-majeur+-MII+-paleontology+-penicillin+-petroleum-provinces+-photogrammetric+-polyisobutylene+-simpsons-comics+-supercavitating+-telomerase+-tumors+-Selbstmorde+-Shinagawa+-SIB-algorithm+-Australian-Geological-Survey+-bremsstrahlung-amplitude+-Gib-mir-zu+-Gib-uns-auch+-Gravitation-index+-Management-Information-Base+-Men-in-Black+-mib-anxhlieflender+-military-intelligence-bureau+-tar-heel-state&as_ylo=2014&as_yhi=2016&btnG=Search">2014-2016 (990 hits)</a>; <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=MiB+GiB+-bose-einstein+-antibiotic+-antibody+-Auftragsarbeit+-basal-cell+-Bitplanes+-bremsstrahlung+-dialektischer+-empfehle+-german-lieder+-Gib-mir+-gibraltar+-Golossanov+-heinonline+-immunostaining+-international-law+-LPIB+-Loudless+-mib-majeur+-MII+-paleontology+-penicillin+-petroleum-provinces+-photogrammetric+-polyisobutylene+-simpsons-comics+-supercavitating+-telomerase+-tumors+-Selbstmorde+-Shinagawa+-SIB-algorithm+-Australian-Geological-Survey+-bremsstrahlung-amplitude+-Gib-mir-zu+-Gib-uns-auch+-Gravitation-index+-Management-Information-Base+-Men-in-Black+-mib-anxhlieflender+-military-intelligence-bureau+-tar-heel-state&as_ylo=2017&as_yhi=2019&btnG=Search">2017-2019 (1160 hits)</a>; <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=MiB+GiB+-bose-einstein+-antibiotic+-antibody+-Auftragsarbeit+-basal-cell+-Bitplanes+-bremsstrahlung+-dialektischer+-empfehle+-german-lieder+-Gib-mir+-gibraltar+-Golossanov+-heinonline+-immunostaining+-international-law+-LPIB+-Loudless+-mib-majeur+-MII+-paleontology+-penicillin+-petroleum-provinces+-photogrammetric+-polyisobutylene+-simpsons-comics+-supercavitating+-telomerase+-tumors+-Selbstmorde+-Shinagawa+-SIB-algorithm+-Australian-Geological-Survey+-bremsstrahlung-amplitude+-Gib-mir-zu+-Gib-uns-auch+-Gravitation-index+-Management-Information-Base+-Men-in-Black+-mib-anxhlieflender+-military-intelligence-bureau+-tar-heel-state&as_ylo=2020&as_yhi=2022&btnG=Search">2020-2022 (380 hits to date)</a>.</li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Why_Wikipedia_should_not_deprecate_the_use_of_IEC_prefixes">Why Wikipedia should not deprecate the use of IEC prefixes</h3></div> <ol><li>IEC prefixes are unambiguous, succinct, simple to use and simple to understand.</li> <li>The use of IEC prefixes is endorsed by national and international standards bodies.</li> <li>The use of one symbol (e.g. GB) to mean two different things in the same article creates confusion and ambiguity. Despite this ambiguity, there are many WP articles in which kilobyte, megabyte and/or gigabyte are used in this way. In this situation, the IEC prefixes provide an ideal disambiguation tool because they are unambiguous and succinct.</li> <li>Deprecation (of IEC prefixes) increases the difficulty threshold for disambiguation, reducing the rate at which articles can be disambiguated by expert editors.</li> <li>In turn this reduces the total number of articles that can be further improved by less expert editors with footnotes etc (assuming that there is consensus to do so).</li> <li>Deprecation is interpreted by some editors as a justification for changing unambiguous units into ambiguous ones.</li> <li>Removing IEC prefixes from articles, even when disambiguated with footnotes, destroys a part of the information that was there before, because it requires an expert to work out which footnote corresponds to which use in the article.</li> <li>In the long term, the use of IEC prefixes would ultimately avoid the need to use same symbol (e.g., MB) with two different meanings. This may sound like a <a href="/wiki/Opium_pipe" title="Opium pipe">pipe dream</a>, but it could be implemented as a user preference, so that readers could choose between familiar (ambiguous) units and (unfamiliar) unambiguous ones.</li> <li>The main argument for not using IEC prefixes is the unfamiliarity of, for example, the mebibyte (MiB) compared with the megabyte (MB). The unfamiliarity is not disputed, but is not relevant to disambiguation. The point is that disambiguation is rare and therefore all disambiguation methods are unfamiliar.</li> <li>Alternative disambiguation methods are either cumbersome (i.e., exact numbers of bytes), difficult and time-consuming to implement in a manner that is clear to the reader (i.e., footnotes)<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> or unlikely to be understood (i.e. exponentiation).</li></ol> <dl><dd><b>In conclusion</b>, disambiguation is not easy, so it would be unwise to discard the simplest disambiguation tool at our disposal just because it is unfamiliar. The best disambiguation method has yet to be established, so it is premature to deprecate this one.</dd></dl> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="See_also">See also</h3></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Binary_prefix" title="Binary prefix">Binary prefix</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Timeline_of_binary_prefixes" title="Timeline of binary prefixes">Timeline of binary prefixes</a></li> <li>User pages <ul><li>A <a href="/wiki/User:Omegatron/Binary_prefix_rationale" title="User:Omegatron/Binary prefix rationale">case for the use of IEC prefixes</a> on Wikipedia by <a href="/wiki/User:Omegatron" title="User:Omegatron">Omegatron</a> .</li> <li>A <a href="/wiki/User:Quilbert/IEC" title="User:Quilbert/IEC">discussion page</a> by <a href="/wiki/User:Quilbert" title="User:Quilbert">Quilbert</a>.</li></ul></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Footnotes">Footnotes</h3></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist"> <div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">the binary meaning of kB is often written KB</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="/wiki/Megabyte" title="Megabyte">MB</a> even has a third meaning, equal to 1000 KiB or 1,024,000 B</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10330509-263.html">Snow Leopard changes how file and drive sizes are calculated</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">According to the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.idema.org/_smartsite/modules/local/data_file/show_file.php?cmd=download&data_file_id=1066">LBA Count for IDE Hard Disk Drives Standard</a> from the website of the International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.idema.org/_smartsite/modules/local/data_file/show_file.php?cmd=standards&cat=103&h=1#">(IDEMA)</a>, there are 1,000,194,048 bytes (1,953,504 logical blocks x 512 bytes/logical block) per nominal gigabyte of hard drive storage.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">This problem is illustrated by <a class="external text" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Address_space_layout_randomization&oldid=229480138">Address space layout randomization</a>, which includes the confusing disambiguation footnote "Transistorized memory, such as RAM and cache sizes (other than solid state disk devices such as USB drives, CompactFlash cards, and so on) as well as CD-based storage size are specified using binary meanings for K (1024<sup>1</sup>), M (1024<sup>2</sup>), G (1024<sup>3</sup>), ..."</span> </li> </ol></div></div></div><noscript><img src="https://login.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAutoLogin/start?type=1x1" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="border: none; 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