Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!gatech!hao!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!ihlpl!jhh From: jhh@ihlpl.ATT.COM (Haller) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: Size of SysV "block" (really: byte != 8 bits) Message-ID: <2386@ihlpl.ATT.COM> Date: Thu, 16-Jul-87 12:44:23 EDT Article-I.D.: ihlpl.2386 Posted: Thu Jul 16 12:44:23 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 18-Jul-87 08:32:05 EDT References: <218@astra.necisa.oz> <142700010@tiger.UUCP> <2792@phri.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois Lines: 18 Summary: Ban bytes - use octets instead In article <2792@phri.UUCP>, roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes: > No, no, no, a thousand times NO! A byte is NOT NECESSARILY 8 bits! > > On a DEC-10/20, for example, a byte can reasonably be anything from > 1 (0?) to 36 (35?) bits; 6, 7, and 9 bit bytes are all quite common and if > anything, I would say an 8-bit byte on a DEC-10/20 is a mite strange. I'm > not sure byte even has a real meaning on a machine like a Cray. > Roy Smith, {allegra,cmcl2,philabs}!phri!roy This is why the standards organizations use the term octet rather than byte. Almost all data networks, and certainly all of the protocol information (headers, etc) are octet aligned, making life very difficult for those manufacturers with "wierd" machines. Unfortunately, mega-octets and giga-octets doesn't have quite as nice a ring as megabyte and gigabyte. John Haller