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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>byte</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../B.html" title="B"/><link rel="previous" href="by-hand.html" title="by hand"/><link rel="next" href="byte-sex.html" title="byte sex"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">byte</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="by-hand.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">B</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="byte-sex.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="byte"/><dt xmlns="" id="byte"><b>byte</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/bi:t/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [techspeak] A unit of memory or data equal to the amount used to
represent one character; on modern architectures this is invariably 8 bits.
Some older architectures used <span class="firstterm">byte</span>
for quantities of 6, 7, or (especially) 9 bits, and the PDP-10 supported
<span class="firstterm">bytes</span> that were actually bitfields of
1 to 36 bits! These usages are now obsolete, killed off by universal
adoption of power-of-2 word sizes.</p></dd><dd><p>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 &#8216;bite&#8217; so
it would not be accidentally misspelled as <a href="bit.html"><i class="glossterm">bit</i></a>. See
also <a href="../N/nybble.html"><i class="glossterm">nybble</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="by-hand.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../B.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="byte-sex.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">by hand </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> byte sex</td></tr></table></div></body></html>