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Technical forums » General technical issues »
Abbreviations, technology, and translation
Thread poster: tlmurray (X)
tlmurray (X)
tlmurray (X)
Local time: 02:12
English
Aug 13, 2005

As I read through the posts in this Technical forum, I see a lot of incorrect abbreviations. The correct abbreviations are:
kilohertz megahertz & gigahertz - kHz MHz GHz
kilo mega & giga - K M G (for storage)
bits & bytes - b B

Examples: 1.2 GHz, 45 kHz, 2 MB (megabytes), 2 Kb (kilobits). The k of kilohertz is lowercase because the k is a standard multiplier of 1000, not a multiplier of 1024 in computer storage.

The reason I mention this in this forum... See more
As I read through the posts in this Technical forum, I see a lot of incorrect abbreviations. The correct abbreviations are:
kilohertz megahertz & gigahertz - kHz MHz GHz
kilo mega & giga - K M G (for storage)
bits & bytes - b B

Examples: 1.2 GHz, 45 kHz, 2 MB (megabytes), 2 Kb (kilobits). The k of kilohertz is lowercase because the k is a standard multiplier of 1000, not a multiplier of 1024 in computer storage.

The reason I mention this in this forum is that if your business entails translation for technology, at least in the direction of non-English to English, you will want to make sure your designations are correct. ▲ Collapse
 
Luca Tutino
Luca Tutino  Identity Verified
Italy
Member (2002)
English to Italian
+ ...
K <> k ? Aug 14, 2005

Thanks for pointing this out. I was aware of most of it. However the explanation of the difference between k and K is not very clear to me.
The k of kilohertz is lowercase because the k is a standard multiplier of 1000, not a multiplier of 1024 in computer storage.

Do you mean that one should always use "k" but with hexadecimal units, and "K" is only correct as a multiplier of 1024?
Hence 100 Km/h is wrong?
Then I would think that the same applyes to "M", so that MHz is wrong... But you say:
kilohertz megahertz & gigahertz - kHz MHz GHz

Could you please clarify/elaborate on this point?




[Edited at 2005-08-14 17:28]
 
tlmurray (X)
tlmurray (X)
Local time: 02:12
English
TOPIC STARTER
K and M Aug 14, 2005

A good source of prefixes is at http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/prefixes.html

For M and m, the designations are the same for a general prefix and for a prefix used in computer storage: M is mega, m is milli. But for K and k the generally accepted terms are different, in that 1024 bytes of computer storage is KB, but 1000 grams is kg. Computer storage is not at this URL, bu... See more
A good source of prefixes is at http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/prefixes.html

For M and m, the designations are the same for a general prefix and for a prefix used in computer storage: M is mega, m is milli. But for K and k the generally accepted terms are different, in that 1024 bytes of computer storage is KB, but 1000 grams is kg. Computer storage is not at this URL, but the terms I quoted are the generally accepted terms used for years in the industry.

That said, take a look at http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html.

Here they talk about computer storage, but no one I know uses these terms, such as the kibibit for 1024 bits -- their kilobit = kbit = 1000 bits. I'm sticking with one kilobit = 1 Kb = 1024 bits until I write for an organization that's heard of these. ▲ Collapse
 
Dan Schioenning Larsen
Dan Schioenning Larsen
Denmark
Local time: 08:12
English to Danish
+ ...
kib Aug 19, 2005

tlmurray wrote:
Here they talk about computer storage, but no one I know uses these terms, such as the kibibit for 1024 bits -- their kilobit = kbit = 1000 bits. I'm sticking with one kilobit = 1 Kb = 1024 bits until I write for an organization that's heard of these.


I have seen the MiB and KiB used in some filesharing software. Of course I can't remember which one, but I did wonder what they meant by that. Now I know. (not that I use such software...)
 


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