Mebibyte
:
''MiB redirects here. For other things abbreviating to MiB or MIB, see
MIB.
A
mebibyte (a contraction of
mega
binary
byte) is a unit of
information or
computer storage, abbreviated
MiB.
1 MiB = 2
20 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes = 1,024
kibibytes
The mebibyte is closely related to the
megabyte (MB), which can either be a synonym for mebibyte, or refer to 10
6 bytes = 1,000,000 bytes, depending on context (see
binary prefix for background). The two numbers are relatively close together, but mistaking the two has nevertheless occasionally led to problems.
The unit was defined by the
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in December 1998. Use of mebibyte and related units is strongly endorsed by
IEEE and
CIPM and is slowly becoming more common.
One mebibyte equals 1024 (= 2
10)
kibibytes, and 1024 mebibytes equal one
gibibyte.
M
ibibyte is a common misspelling, presumably from the "i" in the abbreviation or confusion about how the surrounding prefixes (i.e. "kibi" and "gibi") were actually formed. The "i" is actually from the end of the prefix. Tebi- and pebi- are similarly abbreviated Ti- and Pi-, but they are not usually misspelled, as storage sizes (and corresponding terms) currently are only this large in specialized situations.
*
Megabyte*
Mebibit*
Binary prefix*
SI prefix*
Orders of magnitude (data)*
NIST Prefixes for binary multiples*
IEC Prefixes for binary multiples
