Talk:Kilobit

message: The article states that using lower-case 'b' for bits and upper-case 'B' for bytes is unchallenged. It should be noted that it can depend entirely upon context and while this seperation is the most common, lower-case 'b' also often means bytes, and older technical manuals sometimes upper-case 'B' means bits. Carewolf 09:09, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  upper vs lower case 

message: "abbreviated kb, sometimes also (incorrectly) kbit" yet the unit of choice for this article is kbit ie. "kbit/s"  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.152.115.183 (talk) 22:43, 18 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  kbit is incorrect? 

message: Other technology definition sources include the possibility of Kb for "kilobit," where here there is only "kb." The kilobyte page notes both KB and kB, as does this page. However, this page does not seem to accept the possibility of "Kb." Was this intentional? Can Kb be included as an option?
One of those sources:
http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/diGi8tech/KGlossary.html
kilo-
A prefix indicating 1000 in the metric system. Because computing is based on powers of 2, in this context kilo usually means 2(to the tenth), or 1024. To differentiate between these two uses, a lowercase k is used to indicate 1000 (as in kHz), and an uppercase K to indicate 1024(as in KB). 
kilobit
Abbreviated Kb or Kbit. 1024 bits(binary digits). 
Robigus (talk) 19:15, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Kb" as a possible abbreviation, vs. "kb" 

message: This definitely needs clarification.
For most of the first half of computer usage KB was a kilobit=1024 bits. It had nothing to do with some flowery definition of numbers, but is directly related to binary. 1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024
It is simple enough: A processing bus uses a number of bits, because it is binary the possibilities are 0->2x-1; in other words, an 8 bit computer can count up to 128 numbers, giving 0->127. It impacts directly on things such as ip addresses, 0->255 x4, which I think most of the public are familiar with to some degree. The whole history of that is not written here.
If a computer could use decimal, then we would be fine to suddenly change everything to 1 KB=1000. IMO it is unfortunate that the distinction is not being shown correctly, and must be made somewhere.
Indeed, the whole issue of this only arose when manufacturers and internet providers tried to con people into thinking they were getting true 1 KByte, when it was 1 kbit, and hard-drives/disks were advertised at the larger size than the byte size. If someone buys a 1TB hard drive, formats it, and wonders why it is smaller than it should be, this page will definitely not help them understand that it is because of this issue. Computers still count in 2x and so the kilobit standard is defacto 1024 Chaosdruid (talk) 04:36, 24 July 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: 1 kb (1 kilobit) has always been 1024 bits, ever since we first used the term from the 1950s onward. It has nothing to do with the SI system of physics. Just because some people are confused, you can't just change the meaning of a word that has been used for over half a century. It would render all computerbooks written up until some 10 years ago invalid. 84.26.190.3 (talk) 08:30, 9 December 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: Do you have a reliable source to back up your claim that 'kilobit' was used with a binary meaning in the 1950s? Dondervogel 2 (talk) 09:34, 9 December 2022 (UTC)
thread_title: Clarification