Prefix Multipliers

The Problem with Kilo, Mega, Giga, etc.

We all know the problem  .  .  .  a Kilometer is 1000 meters, but a Kilobyte is 1024 bytes !!  Computers messed everything up by changing all the prefix multipliers to binary values (the power of 2), instead of the traditional decimal values (the power of 10).

At present, the prefix multipliers kilo- (k or K), mega- (M), giga- (G), tera- (T), peta- (P), and exa- (E) are ambiguous. In most of the physical sciences, and when describing quantities of objects generally, these multipliers refer to powers of 10. However, when used to define data quantity in terms of bytes, they refer to powers of 2. The following table denotes the most often-used prefixes and their meanings.

The power-of-10 multipliers and the power-of-2 multipliers for a given word prefix are almost, but not quite, the same. For example, the power-of-10 definition of kilo- (k) refers to 1,000, while the power-of-2 definition (K) refers to 1,024. As if this is not confusing enough, when referring to a data speed of one kilobit per second (1 kbps), analysts generally mean 1,000 bits per second (10³ bps), but when talking about one kilobyte (1 KB) of data storage, they usually mean 1,024 bytes (2¹⁰ B).

A Proposed Fix

This prevailing confusion could be eliminated if we use the same, traditional prefixes for the sciences (powers of 10 - decimal) and use different prefixes for data (powers of 2 - binary). 

So the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) made a proposal in 1998, to use the prefixes Kibi, mebi, gibi, tebi, pebi, and exbi - for binary prefix multipliers. 

As you can expect - the new prefix multiplier system has not been widely adopted at all.  People are just too set in their ways.  So today, we just have to know which is being referred to (binary or decimal multiplier) by the associated topic - if it is data then it's binary, if it's distance then it's decimal, etc.

The proposed scheme is as follows.

NOTE:  these are pronouned the same for the first syllable, and the second syllable is pronouned "bee".  For example, the old prefix, KB is pronounced Kilo-Byte.  The new prefix KiB is pronounced "Kilo-Bee".

In scenarios such as the one mentioned above, if the new binary prefixes are used, it should be easy to know whether an engineer is talking or writing about the decimal or binary multiplier. We will know that one kilobit per second (1 kbps) means 1,000 bps, and one kibibyte (1 KiB) means 1,024 bytes, for example.