Byte Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
This article refers to the unit of binary information. Byte was also the name of a popular computer industry magazine, see Byte magazine.
A byte is commonly used as a unit of storage measurement in computers, regardless of the type of data being stored. It is also one of the basic integral data types in many programming languages.
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2 Coined 3 Alternate words 4 Abbreviation 5 Names for larger units 6 External links |
The term byte was coined by Werner Buchholz in 1956 during the early design phase for the IBM Stretch computer. Originally it was described as one to six bits; typical I/O equipment of the period used six-bit units. The move to an eight-bit byte happened in late 1956, and this size was later adopted and promulgated as a standard by the System/360. The word was coined by mutating the word bite so it would not be accidentally misspelled as bit.
The eight-bit byte is often called an octet in formal contexts such as industry standards, as well as in networking and telecommunication. This is also the word used for the eight-bit quantity in many non-English languages, where the pun on bite does not translate.
Half of an eight-bit byte (four bits) is sometimes called (playfully) a nibble (sometimes spelled nybble) or more formally a hex digit. The nibble is often called a semioctet in a networking or telecommunication context and also by some standards organisations.
"Byte" is most often abbreviated as "B", hence "MB for "megabyte". This is incompatible with the SI system of units, because "B" is already used to represent the Bel.
Sometimes "b" is used for byte (and "bit" for bit), but this can cause confusion because of the much more common use of "b" to mean bit.
French-speaking countries sometimes use "o" for "octet". This is also unacceptable in SI because of the risk of confusion with the zero.
Meanings
The word "byte" has several meanings, all closely related:char integral data type can hold at least 8 bits (clause 5.2.4.2.1), a byte in C is at least capable of holding 256 different values (signed or unsigned char doesn't matter). Java plays it simpler. Java's integral byte data type is always defined as consisting of 8 bits and being a signed data type, holding values from -128 to 127.Coined
Alternate words
Abbreviation
Names for larger units
Note that the names "kilobyte", "megabyte", etc. may be used to mean either the SI or binary multipliers. For further discussion, see Binary prefix.SI
Binary
The following two unofficial prefixes were not included in the IEC proposal, and are too large to have had any realistic use.
Note that as the magnitude increases, the proportion between the binary and decimal versions of the prefix increases.