Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!uhccux!virtue!canterbury.ac.nz!phys169 From: phys169@canterbury.ac.nz Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc Subject: Kb or kb (was Re: DR-DOS ver 5.0) Message-ID: <1990Aug27.122011.9017@canterbury.ac.nz> Date: 27 Aug 90 00:20:11 GMT References: <9K1N7K1@drivax.UUCP> <35010004@hpfinote.HP.COM> <1990Aug21.195452.23710@agate.berkeley.edu> Organization: University of Canterbury Lines: 29 In article , frotz@dri.com (Frotz) writes: > joonsong@monsoon.Berkeley.EDU (Suk-Hyun Song) writes: > ]In article <35010004@hpfinote.HP.COM> pnl@hpfinote.HP.COM (Peter Lim) writes: > ]>... you'll never be able to get > 600 K free with MS-DOS > ]>and one of QRAM, 386MAX etc. (unless you use hercules card). This is > ]>because MS-DOS must reside in low memory. > I personally think it is the responsibility of the operating system to recognise the extra memory, quite apart from the slight efficiency gains in putting such stuff into the o/s rather than an add-on product. This isn't to say these products aren't wonderful, rather Microsoft has been dragging its feet (in my humble opinion) for too long. The makers of DR DOS seem to have a more sensible attitude to what should go into an o/s (and what shouldn't); so it gets my vote for more reasons than a few Kb here and there (actually, I manage to get around 800Kb available memory on a 386 with mono screen, but on many 286's I get around 600Kb - still a worthwhile improvement to some people). > ]I suppose this is all a matter of definition. > ]Does a 640K computer have 640000 bytes or 655360? > ]If you think 1K = 1024 bytes, then 600K = 614400 bytes. > ] Or if 1K = 1000 bytes, then 600K = 600000 bytes. > I think we should standardise on small "k" to mean 1000 (as it does everywhere else), and capital "K" for 1024, so 640Kb = 655.36 kilobytes. The problems really come when we talk of disk space in Megabytes - may mean 1000000 bytes or 1000Kbytes or 1024Kbytes; 1024000 is silly, methinks, but a lota people seem to use it! Mark Aitchison, Physics, University of Canterbury, New Zealand.