Mebibyte (MiB)
The mebibyte, symbol MiB, equals 1,048,576 bytes (1,024 KiB) and was introduced by the IEC in 1998 to eliminate ambiguity between MB (decimal) and MiB (binary). It is commonly used in operating systems, memory specifications, and technical documentation where exact binary measurement is required. Mebibytes provide clarity and consistency, especially in software development and systems engineering, ensuring accurate memory allocation, storage calculations, and file size reporting.
Gibibyte (GiB)
The gibibyte, symbol GiB, is a binary unit of digital information equal to 1,073,741,824 bytes (1,024 mebibytes). Introduced by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 1998, it was created to clearly distinguish binary measurements from decimal-based gigabytes (GB), which can equal 1,000,000,000 bytes. Gibibytes are commonly used in operating systems, software engineering, and computer hardware specifications to ensure precise calculations for memory and storage. By using gibibytes, developers and IT professionals avoid ambiguity when reporting RAM, file sizes, and storage capacity, maintaining accuracy across platforms and systems.