I figured I''ll need this some day. Right now it doesn''t seem very logical. Anyone care to explain it?

a computer (cpu, memory etc) only understands binary numbers 0 and 1, this is a number system that we people dont use, we use the 10 number system.

the computer calculates in bits, so say 8 bits what is that in 10 number system 2^n -> 2^8 = 256 bytes
so 1 kilobyte is 2^10 = 1024 bytes
so 1 megabyte is 2^20 = 1024576 bytes

Hope this help you to understand :-)

(sory for my bad english)

-Vissing-

Edited by - vissing on August 20, 2001 2:44:00 PM

Basically, 1024 was nicer to the computer, and it was so close to 1000 that they decided to use it.

Yeah, thanks, it makes some sense now. I''m not completely familiar with binary though. I know how to count upwards in binary, but direct converting from one to another isn''t really my forté.

just to nitpick, 2^20 is 1048576

Also, converting from binary->decimal and decimal->binary is pretty easy, even easier if you have a newish calculator

Binary -> Decimal

This is the easiest, if you have a number like 01101001:

    +------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+| Bit Number | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |+------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+| Binary     | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |+------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+  

You just use a formula like this:

  number = (0 * 2^7) + (1 * 2^6) + (1 * 2^5) + ... + (0 * 2^1) + (1 * 2^0)       = 105  

Decimal -> Binary

This one is a bit more tricky, but basically, if you're converting to an 8-bit binary number, you first see if 2^7 is smaller than the number, if so, set bit 7 and subtract 2^7. Continue with 2^6, 2^5, etc. So, for 105, you go like this:

  number = 105binary = 00000000  is 105 >= 2^7 = 128? no.  is 105 >= ? yes.    number -= 64, = 41    binary = 01000000  is 41 >= 2^5 = 32? yes    number -= 32, = 9    binary = 01100000  is 9 >= 2^4 = 16? no  is 9 >= 2^3 = 8? yes    number -= 16, = 1    binary = 01101000  is 1 >= 2^2 = 4? no  is 1 >= 2^1 = 2? no  is 1 >= 2^0 = 1? yes    number -= 1, = 0    binary = 01101001    

There you go!

If course, it's much easier doing it with a calculator, though You could write a program to do it for you as well (if you look at the GD.net mouse pad post, you'll see that a lot of people did that so they could "read" the binary on the mouse pad)

War Worlds - A 3D Real-Time Strategy game in development.

Edited by - Dean Harding on August 21, 2001 6:25:27 AM

Thanks, it''s all coming to me now...

(Oh and that was a neat table btw :D)