Talk:Gigabyte

Contents

1 jiga vs giga 2 decimal prefixes wrong? 3 Canadian usage 4 1 GB = 1000 MiB? 5 GB Abreviation

jiga vs giga

The change by DaleNixon on Oct 13, 2003 is questionable. I have lived in the US for 20 years and I have never heard anyone pronounce Giga as Jiga except in the movie "Back to the Future". Even the director's commentary that comes with the movie's DVD admitted that the actors misprounced Jiga-Watts because they were clueless of what Giga was back then. Dale should clarify in which language Jiga is used. Kowloonese

My change is in fact correct. Please look up "gigabyte" at www.merriamwebster.com. You will note that both pronunciations are acceptable. I first encountered this in a databases class as a senior in college in computer science. My textbook pointed out the oft-ignored pronunciation of Giga as Jiga. DaleNixon 21:24, 15 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I agree with Kowloonese and have reverted Dale's change. Angela 07:32, 20 Nov 2003 (UTC)

decimal prefixes wrong?

I believe that a gigabyte is 1024 Megabytes, not 1000. I am a computer engineer and we never use 1000, always 1024. this is further illustrated when you go a goggle calculator by using "1 gigabyte in megabytes" and the result comes back as 1024. This is clearly an error, i shall fix it. 19:26, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I am afraid this is incorrect. Offically 1 gigabyte equals 10^9 bytes, and not 2^30 bytes. The problem is that some hardwarde and software manufacturers do no comply to this international standard. (These SI prefixes refer strictly to powers of 10. They should not be used to indicate powers of 2 (for example, one kilobit represents 1000 bits and not 1024 bits).[1] (http://www1.bipm.org/en/si/si_brochure/chapter3/prefixes.html)). Donar Reiskoffer 06:42, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)

SI has nothing to do with this. while SI has a prefix "giga" it is NOT used in relations to computers. Computers (and bits by their very nature) are binary. Applying a powers of 10 rule to it simply doesnt make sense. as noted above google agrees with me. that page linked says nothing to the contrary as that it is using a decimal system. a kilobit is 1024 bits. sorry to have to break the news to ya. there's no way around that fact. Cavebear42 02:39, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Google isn't an authority on measurement; if you're trying for argumentum ad populum, Microsoft would be a better choice. The fact of the matter is that the SI prefixes *are* used in computing; a 1 GHz processor completes 10^9 cycles/second, the Fast Ethernet standard specifies a data rate of 10^7 bits/second, and so on. Binary multiples are only used consistently to measure memory capacity, and there are physical reasons for that. Hard drives are logically divided into sectors of 2^9 * 2^3 bits for historical reasons, but at higher levels their attributes usually aren't round numbers in either decimal or binary; likewise other magnetic and optical media. 05:43, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

freq is clearly not the same as that it hardly relates to computing. it is a measure of time and therefore has nothing to do with biniary systems. that is clear and a weak rebuttal. a byte has 8 bits. a kilobyte is 1024 bytes (and always has been) a mega byte is 1024 kilobytes (and always has been) a gigabyte... im sure you can see where this is going. the ignorance of the general population and the desire for hard drive manufactures to write a higher number on their drives, does not change the correctness of the binary system being used to measure binary data. if you ahve a link to the fast ethenet standard saying otherwise, please post it. i ahve a degree in computer engineering and, haveing spent sevearl years of my life veiwing standards and doing binary math on a day to day basis, i have to disagree. also, play with google sometime, you might learnt hat it has the measurements database to back up many things, here are some links for you:

mile in feet (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=1+mile+in+feet&btnG=Google+Search) cord in bussels (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=1+cord+in+bushels&btnG=Search) mhz in hz (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=1+MHz+in+Hz&btnG=Google+Search) gb in bytes (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=1+gigabyte+in+Bytes&btnG=Search)Cavebear42 06:05, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

See binary prefix and Hard drive#"Marketing" capacity versus true capacity.

Data rates, hard drive measurements, and the like are measured in decimal prefixes, and memory, CDs, and the like are measured in binary prefixes. - Omegatron 20:25, May 22, 2005 (UTC)

I am aware of the errors which people who are pushing the GiB notation (which has not been accepted in widespread use) have put all over the wikipedia. the article on biniary prefix is well written for the most part and uses the unpopular titles for the sake of clarity in discussion. there are some claims in there which should be verified such as the ones you have made in the previous comment. please feel free to come forward with proof that those are the accepted uses in those fields (perhaps from IEEE or such) and we can go about citing sources. I have not changed them to the correct uses because i have not done the same. the abstract (such as this article) are easy enough to back up and that is why i edit it. to state what constitutes common use would take more reseach (which i dont currently have time to do) Cavebear42 17:20, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

That's a very good idea. I'll start collecting references. - Omegatron 17:56, May 23, 2005 (UTC)

I've moved the references over to Talk:Binary prefix#decimal prefixes wrong?. - Omegatron 01:14, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

Canadian usage

You said that a thousand million is a billion in American usage. Is there a Canadian usage that differs from it?? If so, what is a billion in Canadian usage?? User 66.32.68.243

British English used to use billion to mean a million million, but thousand million is the usual meaning nowadays; see Billion. 82.36.26.32 04:03, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)

There are other countries in the world apart from the USA and Canada, you know ;-)

The Canadian usage is currently the same as the American usage. --Zippanova 18:59, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

1 GB = 1000 MiB?

I've had a webhosting provider who advertised 7 GB of space and turned out to have a quota of 7000 MB (by the binary definition). That is, they define 1 GB as 1,048,576,000 bytes. Has anyone seen this usage anywhere else? Is it, by any chance, notable? Graue 18:38, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

GB Abreviation

As a result of this confusion, the unadorned term gigabyte is useful only where just one digit of precision is required.

Well how about when DVDs are measured in 4.7 GB for a single layer, or 8.5 GB for a DL? I would like this to be clarified, the quote was in the first section of the article on "GB". Kb6110 15:48, 5 June 2005 (UTC)

please see binary prefix and its talk for all the info you are looking on such issues. the short answer is that it is the base 10 usage of GB set by the number of sectors included on the disc. I don't see exactly how you would like this edited but I'm sure that you can do such using that information. Cavebear42 18:48, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)