Kibibyte
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The kibibyte is a multiple of the unit byte for quantities of digital information. The binary prefix kibi means 1024, therefore 1 kibibyte is 1024bytes. The unit symbol for the kibibyte is KiB.[1] The unit was established by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 2000 and has been accepted for use by all major standards organizations. It was designed to replace the kilobyte used in some computer science contexts to mean 1024 bytes, which conflicts with the SI definition of the prefix kilo.
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| SI decimal prefixes | IEC binary prefixes | |||
| Name (Symbol) |
Standard SI |
Binary usage |
Name (Symbol) |
Value |
| kilobyte (kB) | 103 | 210 | kibibyte (KiB) | 210 |
| megabyte (MB) | 106 | 220 | mebibyte (MiB) | 220 |
| gigabyte (GB) | 109 | 230 | gibibyte (GiB) | 230 |
| terabyte (TB) | 1012 | 240 | tebibyte (TiB) | 240 |
| petabyte (PB) | 1015 | 250 | pebibyte (PiB) | 250 |
| exabyte (EB) | 1018 | 260 | exbibyte (EiB) | 260 |
| zettabyte (ZB) | 1021 | 270 | zebibyte (ZiB) | 270 |
| yottabyte (YB) | 1024 | 280 | yobibyte (YiB) | 280 |
| See also: Multiples of bits · Orders of magnitude of data | ||||
Contents |
[edit] Definition
- 1 kibibyte = 210 bytes = 1024 bytes.
The prefix kibi is derived as a mnemonic from the words kilo and binary, indicating its origin in the closeness in value to the SI prefix kilo (1000).
[edit] History
The kibibyte is closely related to the kilobyte. The latter may be used in some contexts as a synonym for the kibibyte, but formally refers to 103 bytes = 1000 bytes, as the prefix is defined in the International System of Units.
The binary interpretation of the metric prefixes causes relatively small differences with the smallest prefixes in the series, i.e. for kilo and mega, but grows to substantial differences beyond (see Deviation between binary and decimal interpretations).
In The Art of Computer Programming, Donald Knuth proposed that this unit be called a large kilobyte (abbreviated KKB). Other early proposals included using the Greek letter κ for 1024 bytes (and using k exclusively for 1000), bK, K₂B, and others.[citation needed]
Adoption of the binary prefixes has been limited, primarily being used in open source software. In most cases the kilobyte continues to be used to refer to a power of ten as well as a power of two.[2][3][4][5]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ International Electrotechnical Commission (2007). "Prefixes for binary multiples". http://www.iec.ch/zone/si/si_bytes.htm. Retrieved 2007-05-06.
- ^ "Safier vs WDC complaint". http://www.wdc.com/settlement/docs/complaint.htm. Retrieved 2007-11-15.
- ^ Rowlett, Prof. Russ (April 16, 2005). "Metric Prefixes". University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/prefixes.html. Retrieved 2007-11-15.
- ^ Simpson, Rick. "Prefixes for binary multiples". Rice University. http://cnx.org/content/m13081/latest/. Retrieved 2007-11-15.
- ^ Grainger, Brian (7 August, 2005). "I've got a bigger gigabyte than you!". Independent Computer Products Users Group (ICPUG). http://www.icpug.org.uk/national/features/050807fe.htm. Retrieved 2007-11-15.
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