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De - Pt| English Dictionary: byte | by the DICT Development Group |
| 4 results for byte | |
| From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: | |
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| From Jargon File (4.2.0, 31 JAN 2000) [jargon]: | |
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byte /bi:t/ n. [techspeak] A unit of memory or data equal to the amount used to represent one character; on modern architectures this is usually 8 bits, but may be 9 on 36-bit machines. Some older architectures used `byte' for quantities of 6 or 7 bits, and the PDP-10 supported `bytes' that were actually bitfields of 1 to 36 bits! These usages are now obsolete, and even 9-bit bytes have become rare in the general trend toward power-of-2 word sizes. Historical note: The term was coined by Werner Buchholz in 1956 during the early design phase for the IBM Stretch computer; originally it was described as 1 to 6 bits (typical I/O equipment of the period used 6-bit chunks of information). The move to an 8-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}. See also {nybble}. | |
| From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (15Feb98) [foldoc]: | |
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Byte {Home (http://www.byte.com)}. (1997-03-27) | |
| From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (15Feb98) [foldoc]: | |
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byte usually larger than a {bit} and smaller than a {word}; now most often eight bits and the smallest addressable unit of storage. A byte typically holds one {character}. A byte may be 9 bits on 36-bit computers. Some older architectures used "byte" for quantities of 6 or 7 bits, and the PDP-10 and IBM 7030 supported "bytes" that were actually {bit-fields} of 1 to 36 (or 64) bits! These usages are now obsolete, and even 9-bit bytes have become rare in the general trend toward power-of-2 word sizes. The term was coined by Werner Buchholz in 1956 during the early design phase for the {IBM} {Stretch} computer. It was a mutation of the word "bite" intended to avoid confusion with "bit". In 1962 he described it as "a group of bits used to encode a character, or the number of bits transmitted in parallel to and from input-output units". The move to an 8-bit byte happened in late 1956, and this size was later adopted and promulgated as a standard by the {System/360} {operating system} (announced April 1964). James S. Jones I am sure I read in a mid-1970's brochure by IBM that outlined the history of computers that BYTE was an acronym that stood for "Bit asYnchronous Transmission E__?__" which related to width of the bus between the Stretch CPU and its CRT-memory (prior to Core). Terry Carr In the early days IBM taught that a series of bits transferred together (like so many yoked oxen) formed a Binary Yoked Transfer Element (BYTE). [True origin? First 8-bit byte architecture?] See also {nibble}, {octet}. [{Jargon File}] (2003-09-21) | |
