Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!husc6!bloom-beacon!think!ames!ptsfa!ihnp4!occrsh!occrsh.ATT.COM!tiger.UUCP!authorplaceholder From: rjd@tiger.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: Size of SysV "block" (really: b Message-ID: <142700011@tiger.UUCP> Date: Sat, 18-Jul-87 16:46:00 EDT Article-I.D.: tiger.142700011 Posted: Sat Jul 18 16:46:00 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 19-Jul-87 21:04:24 EDT References: <2792@phri.UUCP> Lines: 37 Nf-ID: #R:phri.UUCP:-279200:tiger.UUCP:142700011:000:1829 Nf-From: tiger.UUCP!rjd Jul 18 15:46:00 1987 >> O.K., I'll byte. (oops, pun initially unintended.) A byte IS eight bits!!! >> Maybe you are thinking of a word?? And a nibble is four bits, and a gulp is >> sixteen bits (or was this a mouthful?), etc.... > > No, no, no, a thousand times NO! A byte is NOT NECESSARILY 8 bits! > .... more on this.... You sound convincing, and I would like to think that you were right, but I still have my doubts. The way you are describing a byte: "....A byte is simply some collection of contigious bits taken as a unit. Often a byte is that number of bits which most comfortably holds a single character in the machine's native character code, but not always. Often the number of bits in a byte is dictated by the underlying machine architecture, but that's not a hard and fast rule either." This is a word!! On the machines I most commonly work on, even at the hardware design level, the word size is 32-bit (true 32-bit), and have memory sizes specified in bytes - 8-bit bytes!! The machine uses ASCII, as do most except IBM, and ASCII is based on seven bits. So there would be no reason to use a byte meaning 8-bits unless it WAS so. I HAVE AN IDEA!!! Lets look it up........ (turning pages on my Webster's): byte - n. [arbitrary formation, < BITE ] a string of binary digits, usually eight, operated on as a basic unit by a digital computer. word - ...... 8. an ordered combination of characters carrying at least one meaning that is stored in one location in a computer and that is regarded as a unit when stored or transferred by the computers circuits. I guess you are right, yet I think that common usage dictates a byte be eight bits. A very good point you have brought up, though, as I thought I KNEW a byte to ONLY be eight bits, and there seems to be a point of ambiguity here.... Randy