Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!otter.hpl.hp.com!otter!tgg
From: tgg@otter.hpl.hp.com (Tom Gardner)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: GIPS? --> BIPS!
Message-ID: <780022@otter.hpl.hp.com>
Date: 17 Dec 90 08:55:58 GMT
References: <818@atcmpe.atcmp.nl>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol, UK.
Lines: 11

|Not so. We changed the definition some time ago to 1000 million.

Not not so (not**2 so :). The 1987 OED lists billion as one million million.
The latest Chambers also defines million as a million million in both the UK
and France (since 1948)!

I agree common usage is 10**9, and personally I prefer 10**9. But in the UK
the _definition_ is 10**12.

Since benchmarks are moderatelty meaningless anyway, I find it mildly pleasing
that pepole can't even agree on the definition of the number syatem!