Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Fri, 21 Dec 2001 17:55:54 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Fri, 21 Dec 2001 17:55:44 -0500 Received: from [24.83.104.254] ([24.83.104.254]:40840 "EHLO whiskey.enposte.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Fri, 21 Dec 2001 17:55:33 -0500 Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2001 14:55:22 -0800 From: Stuart Lynne To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Changing KB, MB, and GB to KiB, MiB, and GiB in Configure.help. Message-ID: <20011221145522.B1940@fireplug.net> Reply-To: Stuart Lynne Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org > If you would pay more attention, you can see that on most drives there is > a small note that says: 1MB = 1000000 bytes. This is why the drive > capacity is smaller than the manufacturer says. http://www.seagate.com/products/discsales/discselect/A1a2.html#cap Capacity: Capacity is the amount of data that the drive can store, after formatting. Most disc drive companies, including Seagate, calculate disc capacity based on the assumption that 1 megabyte = 1000 kilobytes and 1 gigabyte=1000 megabytes. Disks have a natural measurement of capacity based on an integral number of 512byte blocks. So kilobytes (1024) makes sense for them. The only marketing wizardry is to use the smaller of: 1 megabyte = 1000 kilobytes instead of: 1 megabyte = 1024 kilobytes There are valid arguements for both interpretations. -- __O Lineo - For Embedded Linux Solutions _-\<,_ PGP Fingerprint: 28 E2 A0 15 99 62 9A 00 (_)/ (_) 88 EC A3 EE 2D 1C 15 68 Stuart Lynne www.lineo.com 604-461-7532 - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/