KiB, MiB, KB, MB are prefixes or suffixes?

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McoreD

#158830 Tue, 15 Nov 05 02:49 PM

Hi Guys,

By definition: prefix is a type of affix that precedes the morphemes to which it can attach. A suffix is an affix that succeeds the morphemes to which it can attach.

So when you say 700 MiB, is "MiB" really a prefix or a suffix? It's amazing to see almost every popular article use the phrases "binary prefixes", "SI prefixes" etc.
For example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefix
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_prefix
http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html

Why they use the word "prefix" instead of "suffix" is beyond me. Can anybody please explain?

Thank you in advance,
McoreD

McoreD

Joined on Mon, Nov 14 2005

Australia

New Member (06)

Articles, Suffixes, Affix, Morphemes, Prefixes

Ivantalk

#184870 Tue, 17 Jan 06 05:52 PM

I think those all are abberviations.........And can you tell me what is MiB and KiB?

Ivantalk

Joined on Tue, Jan 17 2006

QuanZhou, Fujian Province, China

New Member (33)

Have your heard of HuaQiao University? I can tell you that it's my university.

Suffixes, Prefixes

McoreD

#185108 Wed, 18 Jan 06 02:11 AM

Hi Ivantalk,

Thanks for the reply. That surprises me. So none of them are either prefixes or suffixes but abbreviations?

If you are interested to know what MiB and KiB, then here are two excellent articles about Binary abbreviations (prefixes).

http://members.optus.net/alexey/prefBin.xhtml
http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj/binprefixes.html

Cheers,
McoreD

McoreD

Abbreviations, Articles, Suffixes, Prefixes