🚀 go-pugleaf

grante@hydro.rosemount.com (Grant Edwards) writes:

>Patrick Torre (torre@crl.com) wrote:

>: >I call it 76 MB.

>: When refering to Disk and Network capacity the convention is that 
>: 1MB = One Million Bytes NOT 2^20 Bytes.

>: What speed is a 10Mbit Ethernet?,  A 16Mbit Token-Ring?
>: (16 MHz = 16,000,000 Hz ).

>Wrong.  For disk capacity K is 2^10 and M is 2^20.  For communications
>the normal base 10 numbers are used: K = 10^3, M = 10^6.

Hmm... I beg to differ. How big is a 1.44MB disk? 1.44*2^20? Nope. It's
1.44*100*1024. (And yes, this time I *DID* check the math). I won't vouch
for any other size diskette since I don't remember the exact byte count
on 1.2's or 720's.

Now when it comes to HD's we have two different standards. It used to be that
EVERYONE used the 2^20 = 1 MB. However now the only place you can find
that number is in CMOS. HD manufacturers, advertisers, install programs,
and most end users (ie- the average user, not the technically knowledgeable
users) refer to 1 MB = 1 million bytes.

Again, if you doubt me, go look at a Computer Shopper. Even the big
HD sellers like HDI use the 1 MB = 1 million bytes.

Personally, whenever I quote MB for something relevant I give both the
real number and the layman number.
-- 
Tom Sorensen * gt0040a@prism.gatech.edu * Team OS/2
Chairman, Yellow Jacket OS/2 User's Group * Vice President, Georgia Tech ACM
"OS/2 is what DOS and Windows should have been. Windows/NT aspires to become
what OS/2 is." - Lee Reiswig, May, 1993.