Bits and Bytes and math and stuff (From Port Washington...)

[sniper_spike]

it's not the transistors, technically, but really just the bits in the memory unit. on and off....the transistors are used in the logic circuits .

And there you go quoting me.

[Gamelver]

I just wanted to offer my knowledge on the subject ....though transistors are used in memory bits, I think....

[gannon]

actually, the reason it's base 2 and not base 10 (decimal) is just that it's a digital and non-analogous system

[loup]

I've been trying really hard to not perpetuate this off-topic stuff, but...

Early computers were actually decimal, they had different wattage lightbulbs in them, 10 watt, 20, 30, 40 and so on. The problem was that when they started to heat up it was difficult to distinguish between the different bulbs. They found that it was much easier and more reliable to just tell if it was on or off, and this mindset just followed on through transistors and digital media.

[gannon]

Not quite, just much easier to hardware detect on or off rather than having to toss all signals through a comparator or level meter.

Anyways, looks like there'll be no shortage of hosts.

[Gamelver]

actually, the reason it's base 2 and not base 10 (decimal) is just that it's a digital and non-analogous system

man, I hate to derail this thread so much but...I must say....technically, it's all analog .

[gannon]

not in the sense I'm talking about, now go play with your Schottky's little boy

[Gamelver]

well in the sense I was talking about, it was .

[totokan]

The reason it's 1024 is not because of binary, but because of bits->bytes. 8bits in 1byte, 1024bytes in 1Kilobyte,1024KB in 1MB,1024MB in 1GB, and so on. It has been suggested that they should be renamed kibibytes(gibibytes), instead of kilobytes, which should technically be 1000 bytes.

[sniper_spike]

....What?

[totokan]

8 bits equal a byte, so 1024 bytes equals 1000 bits.

[sniper_spike]

I know that, but:
1024x8=!1000
1024x8=8192

[totokan]

The term "kilobyte" was first used to refer to a value of 1024 bytes (2^10), because the binary nature of digital computers lends itself to quantities that are powers of two, and 2^10 is roughly one thousand.

[sniper_spike]

And?

[JAY]

The reason it's 1024 is not because of binary, but because of bits->bytes.

The term "kilobyte" was first used to refer to a value of 1024 bytes (2^10), because the binary nature of digital computers lends itself to quantities that are powers of two.

Would anyone else care to contradict himself today?

8 bits equal a byte, so 1024 bytes equals 1000 bits.

That made me laugh. Apparently, while one byte equals eight bits when you have one of them, one bit equals 1.024 bytes once you collect a lot of bytes together. Check your math, I think you did something wrong.