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The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The International System of Units (SI) defines the prefix kilo as a multiplication factor of 1000 (10 3); therefore, one kilobyte is 1000 bytes. [1] The internationally recommended unit symbol for the kilobyte is kB. [1]
Commonly, a decimal SI metric prefix (such as kilo-) is used with bit and byte to express larger sizes (kilobit, kilobyte). But, this is usually inaccurate since these prefixes are decimal, whereas binary hardware size is usually binary. Customarily, each metric prefix, 1000 n, is used to mean a close approximation of a binary multiple, 1024 n ...
For example, a kilobyte is actually 1024 bytes even though the standard meaning of kilo is 1000. And, mega normally means one million, but in computing is often used to mean 2 20 = 1 048 576 . The table below illustrates the differences between normal metric sizes and the implied actual size – the binary size.
An alternative system of nomenclature for the same units (referred to here as the customary convention), in which 1 kilobyte (KB) is equal to 1,024 bytes, [38] [39] [40] 1 megabyte (MB) is equal to 1024 2 bytes and 1 gigabyte (GB) is equal to 1024 3 bytes is mentioned by a 1990s JEDEC standard. Only the first three multiples (up to GB) are ...
The difference between units based on decimal and binary prefixes increases as a semi-logarithmic (linear-log) function—for example, the decimal kilobyte value is nearly 98% of the kibibyte, a megabyte is under 96% of a mebibyte, and a gigabyte is just over 93% of a gibibyte value. This means that a 300 GB (279 GiB) hard disk might be ...
File size is a measure of how much data a computer file contains or how much storage space it is allocated. Typically, file size is expressed in units based on byte. A large value is often expressed with a metric prefix (as in megabyte and gigabyte) or a binary prefix (as in mebibyte and gibibyte). [1]
First use of GB in a decimal sense in this HDD marketing survey; Figure 1 states "FIXED DISK DRIVES more than 1 GB" market size as $10,786.6 million. Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (1987) has binary definitions for kilobyte and megabyte. kilo byte n [from the fact that 1024 (2 10) is the power of 2 closest to 1000] (1970): 1024 bytes
The 5.25-inch diskette sold with the IBM PC AT could hold 1200 × 1024 = 1 228 800 bytes, and thus was marketed as "1200 KB" with the binary sense of "KB". [40] However, the capacity was also quoted "1.2 MB", [ 41 ] which was a hybrid decimal and binary notation, since the "M" meant 1000 × 1024.