Conference 7.286::digital

    The Digital Corporate Style Guide, Chapter 3, Quick Word Lookup says:
    
    kB (kilobyte)         metric multiplier
    K bytes               binary multiplier
    MB (megabyte)
    GB (gigabyte)
    
    There is no listing for Gig or Meg.
    
    Chapter 2 goes into detail on acronyms.
    
    Of course, advertising is another matter.  Copywriters are untouchable.
    
    \Lou
    

    ... did you mean, in the sense of the obsolescent Indian caste system?
    
    Just wondering... :-)
    

    This was a toungue-in-cheek beyond criticism inference.  No references
    to caste/Hindu meant.
    
    \Lou

Don't know about Gig or Meg, but it drives me nuts on technical 
presentations where we continually seem to use mb vs MB, or Kb vs KB.

To engineers, lower case m means "mille" (.001), lower case b is bits.
I'd read 100mb as "100 mille-bits", not the 100 MegaBytes that the writer 
probably intended. 

There's a BIG difference in performance between 100Kb and 100KB (100 kilobits
vs 100KiloBytes)..... 

It's not just Digital stuff, I see it from customers all the time in RFPs 
and other documents..... it's very frustrating to try and guess what the 
writer really meant......

    Then, to add confusion, a Megabyte of RAM is 1024*1024 bytes, but a
    Megabyte of disk is 1000*1000 bytes.
    
    Steveg

    Just to be confusing, the 'norm' in the UK seems to be Mb for Megabytes 
    and Gb for Gigabytes!
    
    Ian
    

    See DEC STD 015 for authoritative information about how units and
    multipliers are to be used within Digital. K=1024 is not _yet_
    recognized by ISO/IEC, but it's proabably only a matter of time. There
    are no other "special" non-decimal multipliers. k=10^3, M=10^6, G=10^9,
    K=undefined, m=10^-3, g=undefined, n=10^-9, among others.
    
    -Tom

    Re: .7

>   See DEC STD 015 for authoritative information about how units and
>   multipliers are to be used within Digital. K=1024 is not _yet_
>   recognized by ISO/IEC, but it's proabably only a matter of time. There
>   are no other "special" non-decimal multipliers. k=10^3, M=10^6, G=10^9,
>   K=undefined, m=10^-3, g=undefined, n=10^-9, among others.

    Recognized or not, a PC advertised as having 16 MB and a 256 KB cache
    undoubtably has 16777216 bytes of memory (not 16000000) and 262144 bytes
    of cache (not 256000).

    Only relatively recently have disk drives been spec'd as having x GB
    where GB means 1000000000 bytes (not 1073741824).  I think this is a
    ploy by disk manufacturers to make their drives seem bigger, similar
    to 15" monitors with 13.2" viewable dimension.

    Bob

    I think we, the company that invented so many terms we can't even keep
    track, should continue our predominence and forge (and copyright of
    course) the RIGHT descriptions for these terms!
    
    GOB = Gig-O-Bytes
    MOB = Meg-O-Bytes
    LOT = Lot-O-Bytes
    
    Hope this helps Sue ;-)
    
    Ira
    
    

>     <<< Note 4304.7 by CFSCTC::SMITH "Tom Smith TAY2-1/L7 dtn 227-3236" >>>
>
>    See DEC STD 015 for authoritative information about how units and
>    multipliers are to be used within Digital. K=1024 is not _yet_
>    recognized by ISO/IEC, but it's proabably only a matter of time. There
>    are no other "special" non-decimal multipliers. k=10^3, M=10^6, G=10^9,
>    K=undefined, m=10^-3, g=undefined, n=10^-9, among others.

Isn't the convention that uppercase prefixes (and their initial abbreviation)
are for positive exponents and lower case for negative?
Thus K >*IS*< taken for kilo-, 10**3, and is not available for 2**10?

- tom]

>Isn't the convention that uppercase prefixes (and their initial abbreviation)
>are for positive exponents and lower case for negative?
>Thus K >*IS*< taken for kilo-, 10**3, and is not available for 2**10?

   "k" and "h" are exceptions to this "convention".  "k" has been used as
   kilo (10**3) for as long as these prefixes have been in use (i.e., it's
   kg and km, not Kg an Km).  From memory, here's the table:

        E = exa   = 10^18
        P = peta  = 10^15
        T = tera  = 10^12
        G = giga  = 10^9
        M = mega  = 10^6
        k = kilo  = 10^3
        h = hecto = 10^2
        D = deca  = 10^1

        d = deci  = 10^-1
        c = centi = 10^-2
        m = milli = 10^-3
        � = micro = 10^-6
        n = nano  = 10^-9
        p = pico  = 10^-12
        f = femto = 10^-15
        a = atto  = 10^-18

    Alfred

I didn't realize an attoboy was so insignificant.

Re: .-1,
>I didn't realize an attoboy was so insignificant.

You, of course know the policy which states that any number of attoboys
can be wiped out by one (1) "awsh%t"...

>You, of course know the policy which states that any number of attoboys
>can be wiped out by one (1) "awsh%t"...
    
    Based on this table, it takes 10^18 attoboys to counterbalance
    one (10^)0 $#�+ !

>    Just to be confusing, the 'norm' in the UK seems to be Mb for Megabytes 
>    and Gb for Gigabytes!
    
You sure?  I thought it was, say, KB for kilobyte and Kb for kilobit over here.

Chris.

Chris,

I agree with you!!

We use MB(yte) and Mb(it) in our little storage group down here in the Solent!
as per industry norms!

Gerald

>Chris,
>
>I agree with you!!

That's not something that happens often... someone agreeing with me, I think 
I'd better lie down for a while...

Chris.