This timeline of binary prefixes lists events in the history of the evolution, development, and use of units of measure that are germane to the definition of the binary prefixes by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 1998, [1] [2] used primarily with units of information such as the bit and the byte.
Historically, computers have used many systems of internal data representation, [3] methods of operating on data elements, and data addressing. Early decimal computers included the ENIAC, UNIVAC 1, IBM 702, IBM 705, IBM 650, IBM 1400 series, and IBM 1620. Early binary addressed computers included Zuse Z3, Colossus, Whirlwind, AN/FSQ-7, IBM 701, IBM 704, IBM 709, IBM 7030, IBM 7090, IBM 7040, IBM System/360 and DEC PDP series.
Decimal systems typically had memory configured in whole decimal multiples, e.g., blocks of 100 and later 1000. The unit abbreviation 'K' or 'k' if it was used, represented multiplication by 1000. Binary memory had sizes of powers of two or small multiples thereof. In this context, 'K' or 'k' was sometimes used to denote multiples of 1024 units or just the approximate size, e.g., either '64K' or '65K' for 65536 (216).
On a 32k core size 704 computer, approximately 28,000 datum may be analyzed, ... without resorting to auxiliary tape storage.The author is with the Westinghouse Electric Corporation.
In the case of the transmission of business-machine or telemetered data, it is more usual to express the speed in bits or kilobits (1000 bits) per second.
The Teleregister Telefile data processor includes drum storage whose capacity is far in excess of the requirements for sorting. ... The Telefile data processor provides 16,000 positions in memory, each position storing one binary coded decimal character. A floating accumulator arrangement allows the accumulator to contain any field in memory from 1 to 100 characters in length. All indexing is accomplished programmatically. Input and output tape blocking is fixed at 300 characters per block.
Also, random access devices are advantageous over serial access devices for backing store applications only when the memory capacity is less than 1 Mbyte. For capacities of 4 Mbyte and 16 Mbyte serial access stores with shift register lengths of 256-bit and 1024-bit, respectively, look favorable.
memory size (8k bytes to 4 megabytes).[65]
Formatted Capacity | SA410 Single/Double Density | SA460 Single/Double Density |
---|---|---|
Per Disk | 204.8/409.6 KBytes | 409.6/819.2 KBytes |
Per Surface | 204.8/409.6 KBytes | 204.8/409.6 KBytes |
Per Track | 2.56/5.12 KBytes | 2.56/5.12 KBytes |
Sectors/Track | 10 | 10 |
The same data sheet uses MByte in a decimal sense.
Formatted Capacity | Single Sided Single/Double Density | Double Sided Single/Double Density |
---|---|---|
Per Disk | 204.8/409.6 kbytes | 409.6/819.2 kbytes |
Per Surface | 204.8/409.6 kbytes | 204.8/409.6 kbytes |
Per Track | 2.56/5.12 kbytes | 2.56/5.12 kbytes |
Sectors/Track | 10 | 10 |
Shugart Associates, one of the leading FD companies used k in a decimal sense.
Symbol | Value |
---|---|
K (kilo) | 1024 = 210 |
M (mega) | 1048576 = 220 |
G (giga) | 1073741824 = 230 |
%@FILESIZE[...]%
), taking special arguments to control the format of the returned values: The lowercase letters k and m are used as decimal prefixes, whereas the uppercase letters K and M are used in their binary meaning. [96] [97] /[smin,max]
for file selection, recognizing lowercase letters k and m as decimal prefixes and uppercase letters K and M as binary prefixes. [97] [100] Of 187 different relevant systems, 131 utilize a straight binary system internally, whereas 53 utilize the decimal system (primarily binary coded decimal) and 3 systems utilize a binary-coded alphanumeric system of notation.
The 7000- and 14,000-kc. grid coils are wound with No. 18 enameled wire ...; R1–5 megohms
[...] With IBM's STRETCH computer as background, handling 64-character words divisible into groups of 8 (I designed the character set for it, under the guidance of Dr. Werner Buchholz, the man who DID coin the term "byte" for an 8-bit grouping). [...] The IBM 360 used 8-bit characters, although not ASCII directly. Thus Buchholz's "byte" caught on everywhere. I myself did not like the name for many reasons. [...]
[...] Most important, from the point of view of editing, will be the ability to handle any characters or digits, from 1 to 6 bits long [...] the Shift Matrix to be used to convert a 60-bit word, coming from Memory in parallel, into characters, or "bytes" as we have called them, to be sent to the Adder serially. The 60 bits are dumped into magnetic cores on six different levels. Thus, if a 1 comes out of position 9, it appears in all six cores underneath. [...] The Adder may accept all or only some of the bits. [...] Assume that it is desired to operate on 4-bit decimal digits, starting at the right. The 0-diagonal is pulsed first, sending out the six bits 0 to 5, of which the Adder accepts only the first four (0–3). Bits 4 and 5 are ignored. Next, the 4 diagonal is pulsed. This sends out bits 4 to 9, of which the last two are again ignored, and so on. [...] It is just as easy to use all six bits in alphanumeric work, or to handle bytes of only one bit for logical analysis, or to offset the bytes by any number of bits. [...]
[...] The first reference found in the files was contained in an internal memo written in June 1956 during the early days of developing Stretch. A byte was described as consisting of any number of parallel bits from one to six. Thus a byte was assumed to have a length appropriate for the occasion. Its first use was in the context of the input–output equipment of the 1950s, which handled six bits at a time. The possibility of going to 8-bit bytes was considered in August 1956 and incorporated in the design of Stretch shortly thereafter. The first published reference to the term occurred in 1959 in a paper "Processing Data in Bits and Pieces" by G A Blaauw, F P Brooks Jr and W Buchholz in the IRE Transactions on Electronic Computers , June 1959, page 121. The notions of that paper were elaborated in Chapter 4 of Planning a Computer System (Project Stretch) , edited by W Buchholz, McGraw-Hill Book Company (1962). The rationale for coining the term was explained there on page 40 as follows:
Byte denotes a group of bits used to encode a character, or the number of bits transmitted in parallel to and from input–output units. A term other than character is used here because a given character may be represented in different applications by more than one code, and different codes may use different numbers of bits (ie, different byte sizes). In input–output transmission the grouping of bits may be completely arbitrary and have no relation to actual characters. (The term is coined from bite , but respelled to avoid accidental mutation to bit.)
System/360 took over many of the Stretch concepts, including the basic byte and word sizes, which are powers of 2. For economy, however, the byte size was fixed at the 8-bit maximum, and addressing at the bit level was replaced by byte addressing. [...]
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)[ permanent dead link ]The following scheme for assigning storage for fixed-word-length arrays seems to meet these criteria and has been used successfully in working with linear arrays on a 4k IBM 1401.
The data handling bit rates can be set by ground command at 1000, 8000, or 64 000 bits per second for the EGO missions, or at 4000, 16 000, or 64 000 bits per second for the POGO missions. ... depending on whether the 1, 4, 8, 16, or 64 kilobit rate is in use.
One method of designing a slave memory for instructions is as follows. Suppose that the main memory has 64K words (where K = 1024) and, therefore, 16 address bits, and that the slave memory has 32 words and, therefore, 5 address bits.
These prefixes for binary multiples [...] were first adopted by the IEC as Amendment 2 to IEC International Standard IEC 60027-2: Letter symbols to be used in electrical technology – Part 2: Telecommunications and electronics. The full content of Amendment 2, which has a publication date of 1999-01, ...
The units for the Beacon Interval field are kilo-microseconds (1,024 μs). In the IEEE 802.11-1999 specification, the term 'Time Unit' is introduced, and defined such that one Time Unit is equal to 1 kμs (i.e., one Time Unit is equal to 1.024 ms).
When the Linux kernel boots and says hda: 120064896 sectors (61473 MB) w/2048KiB Cache
the MB are megabytes and the KiB are kibibytes.
1541–2002 (SCC14) IEEE Trial-Use Standard for Prefixes for Binary Multiples [No negative comments received during trial-use period, which is now complete; Sponsor requests elevation of status to full-use.]Recommendation: Elevate status of standard from trial-use to full-use. Editorial staff will be notified to implement the necessary changes. The standard will be due for a maintenance action in 2007.
Units of measure: All units of storage (capacity) are calculated base 2 (× 1,024). Therefore: 1 KiB = 1,024 bytes ... All units of performance (speed) are calculated base 10 (× 1000). Therefore: 1 KB = 1,000 bytes ...