Binary Prefix - Current Practice

Current Practice

Most computer hardware uses SI prefixes to state capacity and define other performance parameters such as data rate. Main and cache memories are notable exceptions.

Main memory and cache memory universally use customary binary prefixes to state capacity. On the other hand, flash memory, like that found in solid state drives, uses SI prefixes to state capacity.

With a few exceptions, most operating systems and other software continue to use the customary binary prefixes in displays of memory, disk storage capacity, and file size, but SI prefixes in other areas such as network communication speeds and processor speeds.

In the following subsections, unless otherwise noted, examples are first given using the common prefixes used in each case, and then followed by interpretation using other notation where appropriate.