Wirt Atmar writes:

>I only recently found out that we're all a bunch of hicks on this
>newsgroup. In 1994, it was proposed to the ComitÈ Consultative d'UnitÈs (CCU)
>of the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) that the terms
>"kilo",
>"mega" and "giga" be done away with for computer terminalogy. These terms
>would be reserved solely for the standard decimal units, 10^3, 10^6, and
>10^9,
>respectively.
>
>In their place will be the terms "kibibyte", "mebibyte", and "gibibyte",
>standing for kilobinary, megabinary, and gigabinary (2^10, 2^20, 2^30),
>respectively ...
>
>In the five years since this has been proposed, the proposal seems to be
>slowly catching on -- and I, for one, think that it's time we got our act
>together. The next time you order a disk, be sure to ask for a 4.3 gibibyte
>drive and prove to the world that you are not only suave but debonair.

Actually, it was proposed five years ago but not approved until a couple
of months ago. So we're not as far behind the times as Wirt thinks. For
more information on US adoption of the standard, see

  <http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/techbeat/tb9903.htm#Information
Technology>

The terms have now been adopted by the US National Institute of Standards
and Technology.

-- Bruce


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