- A unit of computer memory or data storage capacity equal to 1,048,576 (220) bytes.
- One million bytes.
Dictionary:
meg·a·byte (mĕg'ə-bīt') ![]() |
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One million bytes (approximately 1 million characters = 1000 KB).
| Wikipedia: Megabyte |
The megabyte is an SI-multiple (see prefix mega-) of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission and is equal to 106 (1000000) bytes. However, due to historical usage in computer-related fields it is still often used to represent 220 (1024×1024 or 1048576) bytes. In rare cases, it is used to mean 1000×1024 (1024000) bytes. It is commonly abbreviated as Mbyte or MB (compare Mb, for the megabit).
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The term "megabyte" is ambiguous because it is commonly used to mean either 10002 bytes or 10242 bytes. The confusion originated as compromise technical jargon for the byte multiples that needed to be expressed by the powers of 2 but lacked a convenient name. As 1024 (210) approximates 1000 (103), roughly corresponding SI multiples began to be used for binary multiples. By the end of 2007, standards and government authorities including IEC, IEEE, EU, and NIST, had addressed this ambiguity by promulgating standards for binary prefixes and requiring the use of megabyte to strictly denote 10002 bytes and mebibyte to denote 10242 bytes. This is reflected in an increasing number of software projects using the new definitions, but some file managers still show file sizes using the binary interpretation (10242 bytes). The term remains ambiguous and it can follow any one of the following common definitions:
Depending on compression methods and file format, a megabyte of data can roughly be:
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| Translations: Megabyte |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - megabyte (edb)
Nederlands (Dutch)
megabyte (maat voor computergeheugen)
Français (French)
n. - (Comput) mégaoctet
Deutsch (German)
n. - (Comp.) Megabyte
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (Η/Υ) εκατομμύριο χαρακτήρων, μεγκαμπάιτ
Português (Portuguese)
n. - megabyte (Comp.)
Español (Spanish)
n. - megabyte, megaocteto
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - megabyte
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
兆字节
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 百萬位元組
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) الميغابايت (مليار حرف)
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - מגבייט - מיליון בתים (מחשב)
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| Best of the Web: megabyte |
Some good "megabyte" pages on the web:
Math mathworld.wolfram.com |
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Copyrights:
![]() | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more | |
![]() | Modern Science. The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Second Edition, Revised and updated Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 1993 by Houghton Mifflin Company . All rights reserved. Read more | |
![]() | Veterinary Dictionary. Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary 3rd Edition. Copyright © 2007 by D.C. Blood, V.P. Studdert and C.C. Gay, Elsevier. All rights reserved. Read more | |
![]() | Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Megabyte". Read more | |
![]() | Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
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