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A gibibyte (GiB) is a unit of digital information storage equal to \(2^{30}\) bytes (\(1,073,741,824\) bytes), based on powers of two. It is used to measure data to provide a more accurate representation than a gigabyte (GB), which is equal to \(10^{9}\) bytes (1,000,000,000 bytes). This distinction is important because the difference between a GiB and a GB is more than \(7\%\) and can cause confusion, so GiB is used for clarity in contexts like computer memory, cloud storage, and operating systems.

Why the distinction is important

Accuracy: As data storage capacities have grown, the difference between the two systems has become significant. For example, a 1-terabyte (TB) hard drive has \(10^{12}\) bytes, but it is reported by some operating systems as approximately 931 GiB because of the binary calculation (\(10^{12}\) bytes / \(1024^{4}\)).

Clarity: Using both terms interchangeably can lead to confusion. The introduction of GiB, mebibyte (MiB), and kibibyte (KiB) was a way to create distinct and unambiguous units for binary measurements. 

Where gibibytes are commonly used

Operating Systems: Many operating systems, like some versions of Windows, use the binary system (GiB) when reporting storage capacity, leading to a 1 TB drive appearing as 931 GiB.

Cloud Computing: Cloud providers like AWS use GiB to specify storage and resources.

RAM: The amount of RAM a computer has, such as 16 GiB or 32 GiB, is typically measured and reported in gibibytes.