[flow-tools] 1 Mb = 1000000 bytes?! ;-)

[Cougar]

Yes, there are difference. When we are talking about kilobits, we write it
in lowecase (kbits). At the same time kilebytes will be written as KB or
KByte, not kB or kByte. 1000 multiplier (kilo) is used in telco world
where 19200 is 19.2kbps (remeber your modems). Kilobyte have been always
1204 bytes.

It is true that there are many places where 1000 bps are written as Kbps
not kbps and it makes confusion. But remember, "K" as kilo isn't SI unit
which is "k" (10^3).

The problematic prefix is M where it is 1024 k/K. For example
2 Mbyte = 2 * 1024 * 1024 = 2097152 bytes. At the same time
2 Mbps = 2024 kbps = 2048000 bps.

---
Cougar

On Tue, 18 Jun 2002, Mark Boolootian wrote:

> > This is only for bits not for bytes! KByte is 1024 bytes,
> > 64kbps is 64000 bps
>
> I think the important thing to remember here is that these prefixes
> have well-defined meaning:
>
>   http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/prefixes.html
>
> So things like KBytes and Kbits (or kbits) should generally have
> unambiguous values.  Unfortunately, conventional usage has corrupted
> the meaning of these prefixes and created a lot of confusion.
>