Author Topic: Does "B" mean "bits" any more?  (Read 4126 times)

BudVitoff

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Does "B" mean "bits" any more?
« on: August 11, 2011, 02:37:25 PM »

When you're talking about storage, naturally the "B" in MB, GB, TB, et al stands for "bytes", or eight-bit chunks.  When you're talking about transmission rates, though, I'm never really sure if mbs means megabytes or megabits -- after all, we're talking about a factor of eight, so I'd like to be sure.

 

 


drmemory

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Re: Does "B" mean "bits" any more?
« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2011, 08:33:18 AM »

MB = MegaByte

Mb = Megabit

kB = kiloByte

kb = kilobit

there is no mb when describing storage size or transfer rate in hard drives or computer memory. The person is using incorrect terminology.


BudVitoff

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Re: Does "B" mean "bits" any more?
« Reply #2 on: August 16, 2011, 01:17:54 PM »

Ah-hah, the old upper/lower case trick, just like Tablespoon and teaspoon in cooking.  Thanks for clearing it up.

 

BUT, did you intentionally upper-case the M but not the k?


drmemory

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Re: Does "B" mean "bits" any more?
« Reply #3 on: August 17, 2011, 09:45:45 AM »

Yes, kilo is normally lower case, though many people still use an upper case for kilo - probably because there aren't conflicting electronic meanings for it, like the case with B and b.

Mega should always be a M (upper case).