Gaming Forums => Nintendo Gaming => Topic started by: NeoThunder on January 23, 2007, 08:16:06 PM
Title: Memory Block conversion tool
Post by: NeoThunder on January 23, 2007, 08:16:06 PM
I took the time to do the math incase nobody knew or figured it out. Oh, and incase your wondering. I based these numbers on the fact that a 1 gig memory stick and how many blocks it tells me is available on my Wii. So, I did double check to make sure calculations were correct
7619 blocks total on 1 gig stick of 952 megs total free space
Wii 2171 total available on Wii Flash about 8 blocks = 1 meg about 1 block = 128 k
about 271 megs of memory available for storage about 53% of Wii memory available to user for storage out of 512 megs
GameCube about 128 blocks = 1 meg about 1 block = 8 Kbytes
* A Wii memory block holds 16 times that of a GameCube memory block
So, it infact turns out very simple to find out how much memory something takes up on your Wii example, 4 blocks divided by 8 equals 1 half megabyte...and 16 blocks equals 2 megabytes ONLY KEEP IN MIND THESE ARE ESTIMATES, the actual size of the file may be a few byes more or less example, a 4 block file may only take up 0.49 megs, or 0.51 The way the file system works though the file system will see it as taking up the whole block of memory
Title: RE:Memory Block conversion tool
Post by: JonLeung on January 24, 2007, 02:15:10 AM
The Wii has/uses/supports/handles SD cards, QuickTime movies, DVD-variation discs, IBM CPU, ATi GPU, JPEG images, Opera browser, email, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB, and probably more.
My point is; they borrow and adapt technology from everyone else but they can't even use a totally standardized filesize nomenclature? I'm all for simplicity but I'd rather they call filesizes as "bytes" or "kilobytes". Even "bits" is more understandable than "blocks".
Are the "blocks" even the same size as N64 and GameCube "blocks"? I have an N64 DexDrive somewhere so I suppose it would be easy enough to check...
Title: RE: Memory Block conversion tool
Post by: KDR_11k on January 24, 2007, 02:38:41 AM
Block is perfectly understandable, converting them to bytes is usually only done to deal with file systems of different block sizes. Any block device (i.e. memory with random access) uses blocks. A block is equal to the smallest quantum of space the filesystem deals with, a file automatically occupies a whole block if it occupies any part of it. For filesystems that use the same blocksize on all media it's better to list filesizes as blocks since there's no need to know how much space they use inside that block (if you have owned e.g. a C64 you know that it lists only the block numbers, not the actual bytes). It should be noted that 128kB per block is awfully large, 4kB is a common block size on harddrives in the triple digit gigabytes. I suppose Nintendo wanted the numbers to be small so you can more easily remember how much space you have left.
I fear that these numbers might make people use 16 bit integers for file I/O block addresses which could get problematic on SD cards larger than 4 or 8 GB (depending on whether they use signed or unsigned integers).
Title: RE:Memory Block conversion tool
Post by: darknight06 on January 24, 2007, 03:57:02 AM
X-Box used blocks too, it may not be the exact unit of memory but it used them
Title: RE: Memory Block conversion tool
Post by: KDR_11k on January 24, 2007, 04:58:27 AM
If you don't like blocks use ReiserFS.
Title: RE: Memory Block conversion tool
Post by: 31 Flavas on January 24, 2007, 05:01:10 AM
Yea, being a gamer does not mean you understand what a bit or byte actually is (or how large). Whether you're young or old, you can understand the idea of blocks. You don't really need to know anyway, the Wii will let you know if it will fit on your SD card (or whatever).
Title: RE:Memory Block conversion tool
Post by: Entroper on January 24, 2007, 05:17:57 AM
IMO, it's just as easy to understand "200 MB free" as it is to understand "1562 blocks free". I liked the PS2 memory cards that just told you bytes, and didn't do any of this block nonsense. It would also eliminate the confusion of Gamecube blocks and Wii blocks being different sizes.
Title: RE: Memory Block conversion tool
Post by: NinGurl69 *huggles on January 24, 2007, 05:30:57 AM
Some kind of visual percentage meter or pie chart would be helpful on Wii than just simply telling me EFFING BLOCKS.
Title: RE: Memory Block conversion tool
Post by: KDR_11k on January 24, 2007, 08:03:55 AM
IMO, it's just as easy to understand "200 MB free" as it is to understand "1562 blocks free".
And then you have people wondering why it doesn't add up. Blocks make more sense because the system actually thinks in blocks. The system doesn't care if a file takes 1kB or 20, a block is a block and all those numbers do is add confusion for the user who's wondering why he managed to fill megabytes with a few 1kB files.
Title: RE:Memory Block conversion tool
Post by: NeoThunder on January 24, 2007, 10:08:41 AM
Quote Originally posted by: darknight06 X-Box used blocks too, it may not be the exact unit of memory but it used them
yes, but luckly on the 360 they changed it to computer talk Also, When Nintendo brags that it has 512 megs of flash memory, then goes and tells you it's "blocks", they lay person might think they have the whole 512 megs available for saving. But even the "20 gig" hard drive on a Xbox 360 only has at the most about 13 gigs of space available for saving.
Title: RE: Memory Block conversion tool
Post by: Rancid Planet on January 24, 2007, 12:33:29 PM
Suck in the guts guys, we're the Ghostbusters.
Title: RE:Memory Block conversion tool
Post by: Smash_Brother on January 24, 2007, 12:38:05 PM
Quote Originally posted by: Professional 666 Some kind of visual percentage meter or pie chart would be helpful on Wii than just simply telling me EFFING BLOCKS.
Agreed.
This would help with the whole blue ocean thing as well.
Title: RE:Memory Block conversion tool
Post by: MarioAllStar on January 24, 2007, 01:31:46 PM
I think a pie chart would be a nice way to go, with optional block/MB/MiB values for those who want them. I am fine with Nintendo using blocks as units, but they should tell us somewhere exactly how many bytes are in a block so we have to run through these types of calculations.
Edit: Plus I want to know exactly how much of my flash memory or SD card is availible for use. That is, if I have a 2GB SD card, how much of that is going toward game saves? In the end, it might just be better to leave these types of details out for interface simplicity.
Quote Originally posted by: KDR_11k If you don't like blocks use ReiserFS.
I used ReiserFS for while in the past. I corrupted the partition during a resize (or something like that), but was able to restore some of my data. Apparently, there were mechanisms in place where I could have restored everything to working order, but I was stupid and issued a command that pretty much made recovery impossible. [off-topic]
Title: RE: Memory Block conversion tool
Post by: Nick DiMola on January 24, 2007, 02:01:26 PM
I don't really care that Nintendo decided to use blocks, but I would've liked them to at least publish in the Wii manual just what a block equals, rather than having us guess. When you buy an SD Card it certainly doesn't disclose it's size in Wii blocks, so how does a user know how much space on the SD Card is enough?
Title: RE:Memory Block conversion tool
Post by: NeoThunder on January 24, 2007, 02:46:32 PM
Well, now you know all you do is multiply your memory card by 8 and thats how many blocks you have.....about
Title: RE:Memory Block conversion tool
Post by: Entroper on January 24, 2007, 02:49:17 PM
Quote Originally posted by: KDR_11k IMO, it's just as easy to understand "200 MB free" as it is to understand "1562 blocks free".
And then you have people wondering why it doesn't add up. Blocks make more sense because the system actually thinks in blocks. The system doesn't care if a file takes 1kB or 20, a block is a block and all those numbers do is add confusion for the user who's wondering why he managed to fill megabytes with a few 1kB files.
Simple, the smallest a file can be is the size of one block. You wouldn't be filling up megabytes with a few 1 kB files, you'd be filling them up with 128 kB files.
Title: RE: Memory Block conversion tool
Post by: KDR_11k on January 24, 2007, 10:37:27 PM
Of course but if you give them byte sizes rounded to blocks you're just making the numbers larger. Not everyone thinks in base 2.
Title: RE: Memory Block conversion tool
Post by: NeoThunder on January 24, 2007, 11:24:35 PM
Well, I've always said there are 10 kinds of people in this world... Those who understand binary code, and those who don't.
Title: RE:Memory Block conversion tool
Post by: Flames_of_chaos on January 25, 2007, 01:44:52 AM
Binary is actually easy, in my opinion its much much easier than hex.
Title: RE: Memory Block conversion tool
Post by: KDR_11k on January 25, 2007, 02:37:00 AM
Hex is easy to convert to binary and pretty much never used for something that needs to be converted to decimal.
