this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2023
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148
Why a kilobyte is 1000 and not 1024 bytes (zeta.one)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
210 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I often find myself explaining the same things in real life and online, so I recently started writing technical blog posts.

This one is about why it was a mistake to call 1024 bytes a kilobyte. It's about a 20min read so thank you very much in advance if you find the time to read it.

Feedback is very much welcome. Thank you.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

sure, but one of the intrinsic properties of binary data is that it is in binary sized chunks. you won't find a hard drive that stores 1000 bits of data per chunk.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

The "chunk" is often 32,768 bits these days and it never matches the actual size of the drive.

A 120 GB drive might actually be closer to 180 GB when it's brand new (if it's a good drive - cheap ones might be more like 130 GB)... and will get smaller as the drive wears out with normal use. I once had a HDD go from 500 GB down to about 50 GB before I stopped using it - it was a work computer and only used for email so 50 GB was when it actually started running out of space.

HDD / SSD sellers are often accused of being stingy - but the reality is they're selling a bigger drive than what you're told you're getting.