21 Jan
1999
21 Jan
'99
7:11 p.m.
On Fri, 22 Jan 1999, Pete Turnbull wrote:
Yes, 1,000,000 bytes (a megabyte) + 440,000 bytes (.44 megabytes), ergo
1.44MB.
No, a megabyte
is not a power of two number. A megabyte = 1,000,000
bytes. So 1.44 megabytes = 1.44 million bytes = roughly 1,440,000 bytes.
So 1.44MB disk drive is not a misnomer.
As Megan pointed out, the maths is wrong. A "1.44MB" disk has 80
cylinders, two sides, 18 sectors per track, sector size 512 bytes.
80 * 2 * 18 * 512 = 80 * 18 * 1024 = 1440KB
That's where the "1.44" number comes from. And a Megabyte is normally held to be 1024 * 1024
(megabyte would, I agree,
be different, 1000 * 1000). But "1.44MB" refers to 1.44 * 1000 * 1024,
which is a ridiculous way to count. 1440KB = 1.406MB.
Well, I guess it depends on if you're going by the classical defintion of
a computer 'K' which is 1024 bytes (2^10), or what the literal meaning of
'megabyte' is, which is "one million bytes". Semantics!
Find me an authoritative reference that defines a megabyte as 1024 * 1024
bytes and I'll eat a pancake.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
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