GBC
Digital

Gibibyte (GiB)

Modern equivalent

1,073,741,824 bytes = 1.074 gigabytes

Exactly 1,073,741,824 bytes, being two to the power of thirty, and the binary counterpart to the decimal gigabyte.

This is the unit at which the argument reaches the general public. A drive sold as 500 GB holds 500 billion bytes, which the operating system then reports as roughly 465, because it is counting in gibibytes while labelling them GB. Nothing has been lost and nobody has been cheated, but the mismatch has generated a remarkable volume of complaint and at least one class action in the United States. Manufacturers now print a disclaimer on the box, which is a sentence explaining a unit conversion to people who did not know there were two units.

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