All Topics  
Kibibyte

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Kibibyte
 
 
  Topics Kibibyte Topic Home

A kibibyte (a contraction of kilo binary byte) is a unit of information
Information

Information as a Conveyed concept has a diversity of meanings, from everyday usage to technical settings. Generally speaking, the concept of information is closely related to notions of constraint, communication, control system, data, form, instruction, knowledge, Meaning , stimulation, pattern, perception, and knowledge representation....
 or computer storage
Computer storage

Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, refers to computer components, devices, and recording medium that retain digital data used for computing for some interval of time....
, established by the International Electrotechnical Commission
International Electrotechnical Commission

The International Electrotechnical Commission is a Non-profit organization, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies ? collectively known as "electrotechnology"....
 in 2000. Its symbol is KiB. It was designed to replace the "kilobyte" in computer science, when used to mean 1024 bytes, which conflicts with the SI definition of the prefix "kilo".

1 kibibyte = 210 byte
Byte

A byte is a basic unit of measurement of Computer storage in computer science. In many computer architectures it is a Byte addressing memory address space....
s = 1,024 bytes


The kibibyte is closely related to the kilobyte
Kilobyte

Kilobyte is a unit of Computer data storage equal to either 1,024 bytes or 1,000 bytes , depending on context.It is abbreviated in a number of ways: KB, kB, K and Kbyte....
, which can be used either as a synonym for kibibyte or to refer to 103 bytes = 1,000 bytes (see binary prefix
Binary prefix

In computing, a binary prefix is a set of letters that precede a unit of measure to indicate multiplication by a power of two. In certain contexts in computing, such as computer memory sizes, units of information storage and communication traffic have traditionally been reported in multiples of powers of two....
).

Usage of these terms is intended to avoid the confusion, common in describing storage media, as to the ambiguous meaning of "kilobyte".






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Kibibyte'
Start a new discussion about 'Kibibyte'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


A kibibyte (a contraction of kilo binary byte) is a unit of information
Information

Information as a Conveyed concept has a diversity of meanings, from everyday usage to technical settings. Generally speaking, the concept of information is closely related to notions of constraint, communication, control system, data, form, instruction, knowledge, Meaning , stimulation, pattern, perception, and knowledge representation....
 or computer storage
Computer storage

Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, refers to computer components, devices, and recording medium that retain digital data used for computing for some interval of time....
, established by the International Electrotechnical Commission
International Electrotechnical Commission

The International Electrotechnical Commission is a Non-profit organization, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies ? collectively known as "electrotechnology"....
 in 2000. Its symbol is KiB. It was designed to replace the "kilobyte" in computer science, when used to mean 1024 bytes, which conflicts with the SI definition of the prefix "kilo".

1 kibibyte = 210 byte
Byte

A byte is a basic unit of measurement of Computer storage in computer science. In many computer architectures it is a Byte addressing memory address space....
s = 1,024 bytes


The kibibyte is closely related to the kilobyte
Kilobyte

Kilobyte is a unit of Computer data storage equal to either 1,024 bytes or 1,000 bytes , depending on context.It is abbreviated in a number of ways: KB, kB, K and Kbyte....
, which can be used either as a synonym for kibibyte or to refer to 103 bytes = 1,000 bytes (see binary prefix
Binary prefix

In computing, a binary prefix is a set of letters that precede a unit of measure to indicate multiplication by a power of two. In certain contexts in computing, such as computer memory sizes, units of information storage and communication traffic have traditionally been reported in multiples of powers of two....
).

Usage of these terms is intended to avoid the confusion, common in describing storage media, as to the ambiguous meaning of "kilobyte". Thus the term kibibyte has been defined to refer exclusively to 1,024 byte
Byte

A byte is a basic unit of measurement of Computer storage in computer science. In many computer architectures it is a Byte addressing memory address space....
s.

The confusion if kilobyte is used to refer to both 1,000 and 1,024 bytes became more substantial when hard drives grew to gigabyte
Gigabyte

Gigabyte is an SI prefix-multiple of the unit byte for Computer data storage. Since the giga- prefix means 109, gigabyte means 1,000,000,000 bytes ....
 and larger units. If one expects power-of-two values to refer to capacity, and manufacturers use power-of-ten values, the difference could be substantial. With a kilobyte (1,024 versus 1,000), the difference is 2.4%. With the megabyte (1,024² or 1,048,576, versus 1,000,000) the percentage difference becomes 4.9%. With "gigabytes", if one uses 1024³, the size of a drive would be expected to be 1,073,741,824 bytes per gigabyte versus a mere 1,000,000,000 — a difference of 7.4%.

Confusion can be compounded by the use of both 1,024 and 1,000 in a single definition. The quoted capacity of 3½ inch HD floppy disks is 1.44 MB, where MB stands for 1000 times 1024 bytes. The total capacity is thus 1,474,560 bytes, or approximately 1.41 MiB.

Adoption

Adoption of this term has been limited. In most cases the "kilo" prefix is used even if the meaning is a power of two.

See also

  • Binary prefix
    Binary prefix

    In computing, a binary prefix is a set of letters that precede a unit of measure to indicate multiplication by a power of two. In certain contexts in computing, such as computer memory sizes, units of information storage and communication traffic have traditionally been reported in multiples of powers of two....
  • IEEE 1541
    IEEE 1541

    IEEE 1541-2002 is a standard issued by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers concerning the use of prefixes for binary multiples of units of measurement related to digital electronics and computing....
  • Kibibit
    Kibibit

    A kibibit is a unit of information or computer storage, abbreviated Kibit, or sometimes Kib. The kibibit is closely related to the kilobit, which can either be a synonym for kibibit, or refer to 103 bits = 1,000 bits, depending on context....
  • Kilobyte
    Kilobyte

    Kilobyte is a unit of Computer data storage equal to either 1,024 bytes or 1,000 bytes , depending on context.It is abbreviated in a number of ways: KB, kB, K and Kbyte....
  • Mebibyte
    Mebibyte

    The Mebibyte is a standards-based binary prefix of the byte, a unit of Computer data storage. Mebibyte is abbreviated MiB.The unit prefix mebi was defined by the International Electrotechnical Commission in December 1998....
  • Orders of magnitude (data)
    Orders of magnitude (data)

    This is a list of multiples for Computer data storage, measured in bits. This article assumes a descriptive attitude towards terminology, reflecting actual usage by the speakers of the language....
  • SI prefix
    SI prefix

    An SI prefix is a name or associated symbol that precedes a basic unit of measure to form a decimal multiple . The abbreviation SI is from the French language name Syst?me International d?Unit?s ....