Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!sri-unix!hplabs!sdcrdcf!psivax!nrcvax!minnie!ihm From: ihm@minnie.UUCP (Ian Merritt) Newsgroups: comp.sys.m68k,comp.std.internat,comp.arch Subject: Re: How do you say "byte" in French? Message-ID: <341@minnie.UUCP> Date: Mon, 8-Dec-86 13:31:46 EST Article-I.D.: minnie.341 Posted: Mon Dec 8 13:31:46 1986 Date-Received: Sun, 14-Dec-86 20:29:45 EST References: <125@ogesml0.UUCP> <2523@phri.UUCP> <346@pttesac.UUCP> Reply-To: ihm@minnie.UUCP (Ian Merritt) Organization: The Frobboz Magic Dungeon Co., Inc. Lines: 43 Xref: mnetor comp.sys.m68k:76 comp.std.internat:36 comp.arch:119 >In article <2523@phri.UUCP> roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes: >>In article <125@ogesml0.UUCP> ciaran@ogesml0.UUCP (Ciaran O'Donnell) writes: >>> vitesse 25 Mhz, zero wait states, 1 megaoctet de RAM dynamique sur la carte) >>We have enough trouble here teaching >>people that a byte doesn't have to be 8 bits -- if you call it an "octet", > >A byte doesn't have to be 8 bits? I thought a byte was *always* >8 bits. I thought a "word", or in C a "char" could be any number of >bits, but that the "byte" was 8 bits. Ah, here we have the crux of the problem; the proliferation of terminology with partial loss of meaning. A byte actually refers not to a specific number of bits, but actually to an arbitrary number of bits that is somewhat context dependent. The advent of the term "octet" (at least in its utilization in english) does refer specifically to 8 bits. For whatever it's worth, the PDP-10/DEC-20 systems do not have a fixed byte size. Instead, there is a special goodie called a byte pointer which consists of an address, an offset, and a size. Using these, any size bytes (from 1 to 36 bits) can be manipulated with the instructions provided. In the microprocessor world, and in most other newer machines, there have not been bytes of other than 8 bits, so the meaning of this term has become constrained in the minds of those not familiar with such machines as the PDP-10. Something similar has happend with the term "Baud" which actually refers to the number of symbols per second, regardless of how many bits are encoded per symbol. As such, the so-called 1200 baud modem is really 1200 bps, and (I think they are qpsk) probably 300 baud. > >So what about a "nibble"? Nybble (spelled with a "y", as in byte) usually refers to a half-byte, which in most recent cases (i.e. since the advent of the term nybble) happens to be 4 bits. Cheerz-- <>IHM<> -- uucp: ihnp4!nrcvax!ihm