Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!apple.com!esmith
From: esmith@apple.com (Eric Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi
Subject: Re: New 320Meg SCSI drive, 16ms, $950 (quantity purchase)
Message-ID: <9471@goofy.Apple.COM>
Date: 28 Jul 90 01:05:42 GMT
Sender: usenet@Apple.COM
Organization: Amalgamated Conglomerates
Lines: 26
References:<5429@darkstar.ucsc.edu> <45806@brunix.UUCP> <1990Jul27.134023.285@Solbourne.COM>

In article <1990Jul27.134023.285@Solbourne.COM> paul@paul.Solbourne.COM 
(Paul Orland) writes:
> In article <45806@brunix.UUCP> rca@cs.brown.edu (Ronald C.F. Antony) 
writes:
> 
> >Most ppl tend to forget, that 1 MB = 1024^2 bytes and neither
> >1000*1024 (which would be 1000 KB) nor 1000^2 bytes. In computers
> >there is not the metric system used where m and mega stand for 1000^2.
> >Note also, that in the metric system the letters are lower case where
> >as the K in KB and the M in MB are upper case...
> 
> As discussed in this forum previously, this is *not* true with disk 
drives.
> 1 Megabyte of disk space = 1,000,000 bytes (10^6), not 1024^2.

As discussed in this forum previously, there is no consensus as to
whether a magabyte of disk space is 1000^2 or 1024^2 bytes, but for
consistency with RAM most people seem to use 1024^2.  If you talk about
1K of disk space, you probably mean 1024 bytes, since 1024 probably has
a simple ratio to your sector size, whereas 1000 probably doesn't.  If
you start from that reasoning, a megabyte of disk space is either
1024*1024 or 1024*1000.  The latter doesn't seem to make much sense.
----
Eric Smith    esmith@apple.com
Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of my
employer, family, friends, computer, or even me!  :-)