Free Online megabyte Converter
megabyte
Definition: A megabyte (symbol: MB) is equal to 106 bytes (10002 bytes), where a byte is a unit of digital information that consists of eight bits (binary digits).
History/origin: The megabyte is based on the byte, which is derived from the bit, and is a unit that makes use of SI (International System of Units) prefixes. The prefix "mega" can be ambiguous; the SI use of "mega" would indicate that a megabyte is 1,000,000 bytes, or 10002 bytes, but a base of 1024 (rather than 1000) is also used in information technology as a convenient way to express byte multiples as powers of 2. In 1998, the International Electrotechnical Commission attempted to address this by defining new prefixes to indicate a base of 1024 rather than 1000. Rather than using the prefix "mega," within this system of prefixes, 10242 is referred to as a mebibyte.
Current use: Megabytes are widely used in data storage for file sizes (documents, photos, videos, etc.) as well as for storage devices such as flash drives or, in the past, floppy disks. Today however, storage devices are typically larger, often involving either gigabytes (10003 bytes) or terabytes (10004) of data.
