byte
(BinarY TablE) The common unit of computer storage from desktop computer to mainframe. It is made up of eight binary digits (bits). A ninth bit may be used in the memory circuits as a parity bit for error checking. The term was originally coined to mean the smallest addressable group of bits in a computer, which has not always been eight.
A byte holds the equivalent of a single character, such as the letter A, a dollar sign or decimal point. For numbers, a byte can hold a single decimal digit (0 to 9), two numeric digits (packed decimal) or a number from 0 to 255 (binary numbers).
Data and Text
With database files and word processing documents, the file size is slightly larger than the number of data characters stored in it. Word processing files contain embedded codes for layout settings (margins, tabs, boldface); therefore, a 100,000-byte document might hold 90,000 characters of text (approximately 30 pages). Database files contain codes that describe the data fields within the records, thus, a 500,000-byte database file might hold 450,000 characters of actual data.
Graphics
Unlike data and text, the size of a graphics file is not entirely indicative of the size of the image contained within. A 500,000-byte vector graphics file may render a very detailed and elaborate drawing that could require 11x14" paper for printing, while a 500,000-byte bitmap file might be only a couple inches square. See bit.
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byte [bīt]
(computer science)
A sequence of adjacent binary digits operated upon as a unit in a computer and usually shorter than a word.
| 1. | (publication) | Byte - A popular computing magazine. http://byte.com. | |
| 2. | (unit) | byte - /bi:t/ (B) A component in the machine data hierarchy
larger than a bit and usually smaller than a word; now
nearly always 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 <jsjones@graceland.edu> adds: 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 <bear@mich.com> says: 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). See also nibble, octet. |
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