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Why a kilobyte is 1000 and not 1024 bytes (zeta.one)

submitted 10 months ago by wischi@programming.dev to c/technology@lemmy.world

206 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I often find myself explaining the same things in real life and online, so I recently started writing technical blog posts.

This one is about why it was a mistake to call 1024 bytes a kilobyte. It's about a 20min read so thank you very much in advance if you find the time to read it.

Feedback is very much welcome. Thank you.

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[+] wischi@programming.dev -9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's not as simple as that. A lot of "computer things" are not exact powers of two. A prominent example would be HDDs.

[–] Lmaydev@programming.dev 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

In terms of storage 1000 and 1024 take the same amount of ~~bytes~~ bits to represent. So from a computer point of view 1024 makes a lot more sense.

It's just a binary Vs decimal thing. 1000 is not nicely represented in binary the same as 1024 isn't in decimal.

Edit: was talking about storing the actual number.

[–] abhibeckert@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

In terms of storage 1000 and 1024 take the same amount of bytes.

What? No. A terabyte in 1024 units is 8,796,093,022,208 bits. In 1000 units it's 8,000,000,000,000 bits.

The difference is substantial with larger numbers.

[–] Lmaydev@programming.dev -4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Both require the same amount of bits again. So the second one makes more sense for a computer.