K = kilo



Yup



Interesting (to me) sidenote. I don't know if I've mentioned this previously, here it is again anyway.


Most people probably know that K=1024 (and not 1000) to computerists.

1 Kilobyte = 1 KB = 1024 Bytes
1 Megabyte = 1 MB = 1024*1024 Bytes
1 Gigabyte = 1 GB = 1024*1024*1024 Bytes


However, among communications engineers (many of whom are probably also computer programmers), K equals 1000 again. 1 Kb/s = one kilobit per second,
which can lead to a bit of, ahem, miscommunication at times. I didn't actually catch onto this for a long time until I finally took a formal class in networking (from a pretty well-known guy in the field, and this fact was in his class notes). I missed a lot of stuff when I studied this on my own, and had done a lot more reading. I really should have taken the class sooner. Since I figured this out, I've seen several books get it wrong (assuming my prof's notes were correct - what can I say? I trust him).

k

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Note the small b is for bit and the big B is for byte

Years ago there wasn't a clear standard for what word size was, so a DEC 10 (a 36 bit computer), one could actually define one's byte sizes. And a PDP-8 (also manufactured by DEC and for a long time the most popular mini-computer in the world) had 12 bit words.

1 Byte = 8b
1/2 Word = 2B = 16b
1 Full Word = 4B = 32b
1 Double Word = 8B = 64b

There was also a term for 4 bits, but I haven't heard it used for at least a decade. Does anyone know or care to guess what that term is?

k