March 10, 2008

#394: Kilobyte explain

There’s been a lot of confusion over 1024 vs 1000,

kbyte vs kbit, and the capitalization for each.

Here, at last, is a single, definitive standard:

[table of various kinds of kilobytes]

{| border=“1” cellpadding=“1” cellspacing=“1” class=“wikitable” style=“width: 50%; text-align: left;”

|-

|SYMBOL

|NAME

|SIZE

|NOTES

|-

|kB

|Kilobyte

|1024 bytes OR 1000 bytes

|1000 bytes during leap years, 1024 otherwise

|-

|KB

|Kelly-Bootle standard unit

|1012 bytes

|compromise between 1000 and 1024 bytes

|-

|KiB

|Imaginary kilobyte

|1024 √-1 bytes

|used in quantum computing

|-

|kb

|Intel kilobyte

|1023.937528 bytes

|calculated on Pentium F.P.U.

|-

|Kb

|Drivemaker’s kilobyte

|currently 908 bytes

|shrinks by 4 bytes each year for marketing reasons

|-

|KBa

|Baker’s kilobyte

|1152 bytes

|9 bits to the byte since you’re such a good customer

|}