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  1. #1
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    1GB = 1024MB or 1000MB?

    I had read various varying answers on the net. Personally I always go with 1:1024. What is the actual ratio? 1:1024 or 1:1000?
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  2. #2
    The actual ratio is 1024, however a lot of people including myself just use 1GB to make "1000MB" shorter in text.
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  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by LaptopFreak View Post
    I had read various varying answers on the net. Personally I always go with 1:1024. What is the actual ratio? 1:1024 or 1:1000?
    Actual is 1024, but I see often it's just done as 1000.
    Jacob Wall
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  4. #4
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    Agreed. But why ever have doubts again: http://www.t1shopper.com/tools/calculate/

    Sorta handy to have the link sometimes.
    Colbyt
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  5. #5
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    Memories are always represented in base 2 (e.g. 1024, not 1000)

    However, communication speeds (e.g. kbps) are represented in base 10; 1000bps not 1024bps.

    -Software Engineer
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  6. #6
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    If we go by the International System of Units (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interna...ystem_of_Units) then:

    1GB (gigabytes) = 1000MB (megabytes)
    1Gi (gibibytes) = 1024 Mi (mebibytes)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte

    Historically, the term has also been used in some fields of computer science and information technology to denote the gibibyte, or 1073741824 (10243, 230) bytes. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) defined the unit accordingly for the use in power switchgear. In 2000, however, IEEE adopted the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) recommendation, which uses the metric prefix interpretation.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibibyte

    So, since the year 2000, 1000MB would be the correct answer.
    Last edited by ldcdc; 11-20-2009 at 12:15 AM.
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  7. #7
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  8. #8
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    it goes up by 2x. easiest way to remember.

    2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, etc.

    from 1024, it just goes onto the next level, MB >> GB >> TB >> PB >> EB...

    end of mini-lesson

    Most people just like to round down though. Even I do it sometimes but I know in the back of my mind what the actual values are.
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  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by ldcdc View Post
    If we go by the International System of Units (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interna...ystem_of_Units) then:

    1GB (gigabytes) = 1000MB (megabytes)
    1Gi (gibibytes) = 1024 Mi (mebibytes)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte



    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibibyte

    So, since the year 2000, 1000MB would be the correct answer.
    Thanks for that. I remember I read 1:1000 somewhere on Wiki, but can't remember where.

    Where does 1:1024 ratio derive from?
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  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by LaptopFreak View Post
    Where does 1:1024 ratio derive from?
    It goes back to how memories are implemented. A simplified explanation would be that in digital electronics, a circuit only concerns itself with two states -- "on" (voltage present) or "off" (no voltage). These two states are often represented as 1 and 0, respectively.

    The smallest unit of memory is the "bit". It also can store two states -- 1 or 0.

    If you had two bits of memory, you can store 4 states: 0-0, 0-1, 1-0, 1-1

    With 3 bits you can store 8 states. As you can see, since there are two states involved, each time you add another bit, the number of states you can store doubles (increases by a power of 2).

    A Byte is a collection of 8 bits.

    A Kilobyte is a collection of 1024 Bytes.
    A Megabyte is a collection of 1024 Kilobytes
    A Gigabyte is a collection of 1024 Megabytes
    A Terabyte is a collection of 1024 Gigabytes

    See a pattern here?

    Keeping in mind that the memories will always come in a size that is a power of 2 (by virtue of being based off two states), 1024 is chosen because it is the smallest value which is equal or greater to 1000 AND a power of 2.

    It is a confusing concept for many people, but it makes perfect sense if you dive into the details. Just remember, if it is a memory (RAM, disk space, etc.) it should be represented as base 2 value.

    Also, note the representation (in Bytes) in terms of powers:

    "2^x" is pronounced "two to the xth power"
    2^10 = 1 Kilobyte
    2^20 = 1 Megabyte
    2^30 = 1 Gigabyte
    2^40 = 1 Terabyte
    etc.

    Note the 2^(10p), where p is an integer. It illustrates a link to the base 10 system that you will probably be able to remember more easily.
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  11. #11
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    Its really to do with addressing - for a given number of (binary) lines on an address bus the number of unique addresses is a power-of-two, and it makes sense to match available capacity to available addresses.

    A lot of confusion arises because hard drive manufacturers (most likely for marketing reasons) decided to use 2^10 (1024) rather than 10^3 (1000).
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  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by JoshZZ View Post
    It goes back to how memories are implemented. A simplified explanation would be that in digital electronics, a circuit only concerns itself with two states -- "on" (voltage present) or "off" (no voltage). These two states are often represented as 1 and 0, respectively.

    The smallest unit of memory is the "bit". It also can store two states -- 1 or 0.

    If you had two bits of memory, you can store 4 states: 0-0, 0-1, 1-0, 1-1

    With 3 bits you can store 8 states. As you can see, since there are two states involved, each time you add another bit, the number of states you can store doubles (increases by a power of 2).

    A Byte is a collection of 8 bits.

    A Kilobyte is a collection of 1024 Bytes.
    A Megabyte is a collection of 1024 Kilobytes
    A Gigabyte is a collection of 1024 Megabytes
    A Terabyte is a collection of 1024 Gigabytes

    See a pattern here?

    Keeping in mind that the memories will always come in a size that is a power of 2 (by virtue of being based off two states), 1024 is chosen because it is the smallest value which is equal or greater to 1000 AND a power of 2.
    Thank you very much for the long and informative post.

    Quote Originally Posted by JoshZZ View Post
    It is a confusing concept for many people, but it makes perfect sense if you dive into the details. Just remember, if it is a memory (RAM, disk space, etc.) it should be represented as base 2 value.
    Yes, it is confusing and hard to digest.

    Quote Originally Posted by JoshZZ View Post
    Also, note the representation (in Bytes) in terms of powers:

    "2^x" is pronounced "two to the xth power"
    2^10 = 1 Kilobyte
    2^20 = 1 Megabyte
    2^30 = 1 Gigabyte
    2^40 = 1 Terabyte
    etc.

    Note the 2^(10p), where p is an integer. It illustrates a link to the base 10 system that you will probably be able to remember more easily.
    Mathematics, my forte. Thanks!
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  13. #13
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    I thought capital B always mean byte and not bit.

    So 1GB = 1000 gigaByte
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  14. #14
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    1GB will always be 1024MB! I don't care what the marketing department at Western Digital says!
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  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by lonea View Post
    I thought capital B always mean byte and not bit.

    So 1GB = 1000 gigaByte
    B is byte, lowercase is bit,

    1GB = 1 gigabyte = 1024 megabytes
    1Gb = 1 gigabit
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  16. #16
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    1GB should be 1024MB
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  17. #17
    Thank you for asking this subject, Mr
    1gb = 1024mg
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  18. #18
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    1GB is 1024MB

    Any Webhost that provides their customers with 1000MB when they claim to provide 1GB IS a fraud, no and ifs or butts.

    If anyone wants to argue this fact I have a test for you. Next time you pay a utility bill count $1 as $0.75 and see what they say/do.
    I could tell you a joke about UDP. But I'm not sure you would get it!
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  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by JWeb2 View Post
    1GB will always be 1024MB! I don't care what the marketing department at Western Digital says!
    Haha, I totally agree.

    1GB = 1024MB
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  20. #20
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    Considering the SI standard is in favor of the 10^3 scale, you're unlikely to get *more* support for 2^10 any time soon.

    Traditionally, network transfer has always been 1GB = 10^9 bytes, while RAM has always been 1GB = 2^30 bytes. Mostly, the latter has to do with addressing and technical reasons that are now only relevant for RAM. For disk storage capacity, we're moving more and more towards 1GB = 10^9 bytes, with quite a bit of help from the HDD marketing departments, but most "experts" still stick to 1GB = 2^30 bytes. Snow Leopard already switched to use the 10^n scale.

    Edit: That is, it is still "relevant" for disks in the sense that most file systems use a power-of-2 block allocation, but this really only matters to less than 0.1% of the population, so..
    Last edited by aeris; 11-21-2009 at 08:19 AM.
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  21. #21
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    in term of disk capacity 1GB=1000MB
    ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_di...y_measurements
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  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by LaptopFreak View Post
    I had read various varying answers on the net. Personally I always go with 1:1024. What is the actual ratio? 1:1024 or 1:1000?
    For memory (RAM and similar) 1mb is 1048576 bytes, and 1gb is 1024mb

    For every thing else (disk space, network traffic), 1mb is a million bytes, and 1gb is 1000mb.

    But lots of people and programmers get it wrong.

    Case is not significant, by the way; though some people think "b" is "bit" and "B" is byte.

    There *are* Si prefixes kibi, mebi, and gibi for 1024, 1048576, 1024 * 1048576

    1 MiB is 1048576 bytes
    1GiB is 1024 MiB

    You occasionally see them used.
    Last edited by tim2718281; 11-21-2009 at 08:44 AM.
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  23. #23
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    i second Overra on this one.
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  24. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by bizness View Post
    i second Overra on this one.
    Take for example this advert for a dedicated server

    http://www.webhosting.uk.com/dedicat...eb-hosting.php

    It says near the top "PORT: 100MBPS DEDICATED"

    I'm confident the port operates at 100 million bits per second.

    Not 100 million bytes per second.

    Not 104,587,600 bits per second.

    Not 104,587,600 bytes per second.
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  25. #25
    definitely is 1024. This is the technical definition for 1GB = 1024MB. Yes, for easiness we all are using 1000MB
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