Megabyte

A megabyte is a unit of measurement in computers of approximately one million bytes.

Because of irregularities in definition and usage of the kilobyte, the exact number could be any one of the following:

1. 1048576 bytes - 1024 times 1024, or 2²⁰. This is the definition used in computer science and computer programming
2. 1000000 bytes - this is the definition used by telecommunications engineers and storage manufacturers
3. 1024000 bytes - 1024 times 1000. This is an (erroneous) definition used by floppy disk manufacturers

The International Electrotechnical Commission has attempted to define (2) as the kilobyte and call (1) an kibibyte -- a term which however has not caught on.