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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