Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Timeline of binary prefixes" in English language version.
When the Linux kernel boots and says hda: 120064896 sectors (61473 MB) w/2048KiB Cache the MB are megabytes and the KiB are kibibytes.[...] The first reference found in the files was contained in an internal memo written in June 1956 during the early days of developing Stretch. A byte was described as consisting of any number of parallel bits from one to six. Thus a byte was assumed to have a length appropriate for the occasion. Its first use was in the context of the input–output equipment of the 1950s, which handled six bits at a time. The possibility of going to 8-bit bytes was considered in August 1956 and incorporated in the design of Stretch shortly thereafter. The first published reference to the term occurred in 1959 in a paper "Processing Data in Bits and Pieces" by G A Blaauw, F P Brooks Jr and W Buchholz in the IRE Transactions on Electronic Computers, June 1959, page 121. The notions of that paper were elaborated in Chapter 4 of Planning a Computer System (Project Stretch), edited by W Buchholz, McGraw-Hill Book Company (1962). The rationale for coining the term was explained there on page 40 as follows:
Byte denotes a group of bits used to encode a character, or the number of bits transmitted in parallel to and from input–output units. A term other than character is used here because a given character may be represented in different applications by more than one code, and different codes may use different numbers of bits (ie, different byte sizes). In input–output transmission the grouping of bits may be completely arbitrary and have no relation to actual characters. (The term is coined from bite, but respelled to avoid accidental mutation to bit.)
System/360 took over many of the Stretch concepts, including the basic byte and word sizes, which are powers of 2. For economy, however, the byte size was fixed at the 8-bit maximum, and addressing at the bit level was replaced by byte addressing. [...]
[...] With IBM's STRETCH computer as background, handling 64-character words divisible into groups of 8 (I designed the character set for it, under the guidance of Dr. Werner Buchholz, the man who DID coin the term "byte" for an 8-bit grouping). [...] The IBM 360 used 8-bit characters, although not ASCII directly. Thus Buchholz's "byte" caught on everywhere. I myself did not like the name for many reasons. [...]
The units for the Beacon Interval field are kilo-microseconds (1,024 μs). In the IEEE 802.11-1999 specification, the term 'Time Unit' is introduced, and defined such that one Time Unit is equal to 1 kμs (i.e., one Time Unit is equal to 1.024 ms).
[...] Most important, from the point of view of editing, will be the ability to handle any characters or digits, from 1 to 6 bits long [...] the Shift Matrix to be used to convert a 60-bit word, coming from Memory in parallel, into characters, or "bytes" as we have called them, to be sent to the Adder serially. The 60 bits are dumped into magnetic cores on six different levels. Thus, if a 1 comes out of position 9, it appears in all six cores underneath. [...] The Adder may accept all or only some of the bits. [...] Assume that it is desired to operate on 4-bit decimal digits, starting at the right. The 0-diagonal is pulsed first, sending out the six bits 0 to 5, of which the Adder accepts only the first four (0–3). Bits 4 and 5 are ignored. Next, the 4 diagonal is pulsed. This sends out bits 4 to 9, of which the last two are again ignored, and so on. [...] It is just as easy to use all six bits in alphanumeric work, or to handle bytes of only one bit for logical analysis, or to offset the bytes by any number of bits. [...]
{{cite conference}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)[permanent dead link]The following scheme for assigning storage for fixed-word-length arrays seems to meet these criteria and has been used successfully in working with linear arrays on a 4k IBM 1401.
The data handling bit rates can be set by ground command at 1000, 8000, or 64 000 bits per second for the EGO missions, or at 4000, 16 000, or 64 000 bits per second for the POGO missions. ... depending on whether the 1, 4, 8, 16, or 64 kilobit rate is in use.
One method of designing a slave memory for instructions is as follows. Suppose that the main memory has 64K words (where K = 1024) and, therefore, 16 address bits, and that the slave memory has 32 words and, therefore, 5 address bits.
Of 187 different relevant systems, 131 utilize a straight binary system internally, whereas 53 utilize the decimal system (primarily binary coded decimal) and 3 systems utilize a binary-coded alphanumeric system of notation.
The data handling bit rates can be set by ground command at 1000, 8000, or 64 000 bits per second for the EGO missions, or at 4000, 16 000, or 64 000 bits per second for the POGO missions. ... depending on whether the 1, 4, 8, 16, or 64 kilobit rate is in use.
The data handling bit rates can be set by ground command at 1000, 8000, or 64 000 bits per second for the EGO missions, or at 4000, 16 000, or 64 000 bits per second for the POGO missions. ... depending on whether the 1, 4, 8, 16, or 64 kilobit rate is in use.
Units of measure: All units of storage (capacity) are calculated base 2 (× 1,024). Therefore: 1 KiB = 1,024 bytes ... All units of performance (speed) are calculated base 10 (× 1000). Therefore: 1 KB = 1,000 bytes ...
1541–2002 (SCC14) IEEE Trial-Use Standard for Prefixes for Binary Multiples [No negative comments received during trial-use period, which is now complete; Sponsor requests elevation of status to full-use.] Recommendation: Elevate status of standard from trial-use to full-use. Editorial staff will be notified to implement the necessary changes. The standard will be due for a maintenance action in 2007.
These prefixes for binary multiples [...] were first adopted by the IEC as Amendment 2 to IEC International Standard IEC 60027-2: Letter symbols to be used in electrical technology – Part 2: Telecommunications and electronics. The full content of Amendment 2, which has a publication date of 1999-01, ...
{{cite conference}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)[permanent dead link]The 7000- and 14,000-kc. grid coils are wound with No. 18 enameled wire ...; R1–5 megohms
The following scheme for assigning storage for fixed-word-length arrays seems to meet these criteria and has been used successfully in working with linear arrays on a 4k IBM 1401.
The data handling bit rates can be set by ground command at 1000, 8000, or 64 000 bits per second for the EGO missions, or at 4000, 16 000, or 64 000 bits per second for the POGO missions. ... depending on whether the 1, 4, 8, 16, or 64 kilobit rate is in use.
[...] With IBM's STRETCH computer as background, handling 64-character words divisible into groups of 8 (I designed the character set for it, under the guidance of Dr. Werner Buchholz, the man who DID coin the term "byte" for an 8-bit grouping). [...] The IBM 360 used 8-bit characters, although not ASCII directly. Thus Buchholz's "byte" caught on everywhere. I myself did not like the name for many reasons. [...]
[...] Most important, from the point of view of editing, will be the ability to handle any characters or digits, from 1 to 6 bits long [...] the Shift Matrix to be used to convert a 60-bit word, coming from Memory in parallel, into characters, or "bytes" as we have called them, to be sent to the Adder serially. The 60 bits are dumped into magnetic cores on six different levels. Thus, if a 1 comes out of position 9, it appears in all six cores underneath. [...] The Adder may accept all or only some of the bits. [...] Assume that it is desired to operate on 4-bit decimal digits, starting at the right. The 0-diagonal is pulsed first, sending out the six bits 0 to 5, of which the Adder accepts only the first four (0–3). Bits 4 and 5 are ignored. Next, the 4 diagonal is pulsed. This sends out bits 4 to 9, of which the last two are again ignored, and so on. [...] It is just as easy to use all six bits in alphanumeric work, or to handle bytes of only one bit for logical analysis, or to offset the bytes by any number of bits. [...]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)When the Linux kernel boots and says hda: 120064896 sectors (61473 MB) w/2048KiB Cache the MB are megabytes and the KiB are kibibytes.1541–2002 (SCC14) IEEE Trial-Use Standard for Prefixes for Binary Multiples [No negative comments received during trial-use period, which is now complete; Sponsor requests elevation of status to full-use.] Recommendation: Elevate status of standard from trial-use to full-use. Editorial staff will be notified to implement the necessary changes. The standard will be due for a maintenance action in 2007.
Units of measure: All units of storage (capacity) are calculated base 2 (× 1,024). Therefore: 1 KiB = 1,024 bytes ... All units of performance (speed) are calculated base 10 (× 1000). Therefore: 1 KB = 1,000 bytes ...