Mebi

What does Mebi mean?

Mebi (mebibyte) is a Unit of measure used to quantify the storage capacity of computer data. It is defined as 220 or 1,048,576 bytes, making it approximately equivalent to one million bytes. Mebi is one of the most commonly used units of data storage, along with its larger counterpart, the gigabyte (GB)

Mebi is derived from the binary prefix ‘mebi,’ which represents 2²⁰, and the term ‘byte’, which represents a group of 8 bits. Unlike the decimal system commonly used in everyday Life, the binary system is based on powers of two. In this system, a mebibyte represents 2²⁰ or 1,048,576 bytes, While a gigabyte represents 2³⁰ or 1,073,741,824 bytes.

Applications

Mebi is extensively utilized in various technological domains, particularly in quantifying storage capacities. Hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), and flash memory devices commonly use this unit to denote their storage capacities. For instance, a 256 Mebi SSD would have a storage capacity of approximately 268 million bytes.

In addition to storage devices, Mebi is also employed in computer networking. It is used to express the data transfer rates of network connections. For Example, a network connection with a transfer rate of 100 Mebi/s can transfer approximately 100 million bytes of data per second.

History

The term ‘Mebi’ was initially proposed in 1998 by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) as part of the IEC 60027 series of standards. This standard aimed to establish a consistent set of prefixes for binary multiples. The prefix ‘mebi’ was selected to represent 2²⁰, aligning with the binary nature of computer systems.

Prior to the introduction of ‘Mebi,’ the term ‘megabyte’ was commonly used to refer to units of 1,000,000 bytes. However, this usage led to confusion and imprecision, as ‘mega’ is a decimal prefix meaning 10⁶. The adoption of ‘Mebi’ helped to resolve this ambiguity and establish a clear distinction between decimal and binary units of storage.