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On 03/31/2014 02:07, Michał Górny wrote: |
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> Dnia 2014-03-30, o godz. 23:13:50 |
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> Richard Yao <ryao@g.o> napisał(a): |
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> |
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>> Lets just stick with the JEDEC standard's way of doing things that came from IBM. |
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> |
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> JEDEC itself admits it have failed with the 'standard way': |
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> |
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> | NOTE 2 The definitions of kilo, giga, and mega based on powers of two |
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> | are included only to reflect common usage. IEEE/ASTM SI 10‑1997 states |
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> | "This practice frequently leads to confusion and is deprecated." Further |
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> | confusion results from the popular use of a "megabyte" consisting |
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> | of 1 024 000 bytes to define the capacity of the familiar "1.44‑MB" |
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> | diskette. |
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> |
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> http://www.jedec.org/standards-documents/dictionary/terms/mega-m-prefix-units-semiconductor-storage-capacity |
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|
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The problem is, those of us who grew up in those dark ages, who played with |
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5.25" and 3.5" disks....we're a lost cause. No hope to save us. It'll |
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always be 1,024 bytes to a kilobyte. Anything else is blasphemy. Save |
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yourselves! |
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|
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Besides, for an outdated standard, it still gets used a lot. Last I |
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checked, one can really only buy RAM in sizes of powers of two. And the |
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computer will report that size, in powers of two. Ditto for L1/L2/L3 caches |
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(look at the top of any kernel dmesg), etc. |
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|
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In some respect, if all one cares about is free space on a disk drive or how |
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fast they can stream a movie, then the KiB/MiB thing works. But if you play |
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with bits and bytes from time-to-time (and worry about byte alignment) or |
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sometimes fiddle w/ partition tables in a hex editor...you're going to think |
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in terms of powers of two. |
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|
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So both have their uses. Hence my suggestion of making it a |
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user-configurable setting. |
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|
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-- |
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Joshua Kinard |
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Gentoo/MIPS |
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kumba@g.o |
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4096R/D25D95E3 2011-03-28 |
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|
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"The past tempts us, the present confuses us, the future frightens us. And |
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our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast, terrible in-between." |
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|
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--Emperor Turhan, Centauri Republic |