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The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communication. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. [1] The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented as either " 1" or "0 ", but other representations such as true/false, yes/no, on/off, or +/− are ...
Binary-coded decimal (BCD) is a binary encoded representation of integer values that uses a 4-bit nibble to encode decimal digits. Four binary bits can encode up to 16 distinct values; but, in BCD-encoded numbers, only ten values in each nibble are legal, and encode the decimal digits zero, through nine.
4 bits – (a.k.a. tetrad(e), nibble, quadbit, semioctet, or halfbyte) the size of a hexadecimal digit; decimal digits in binary-coded decimal form 5 bits – the size of code points in the Baudot code, used in telex communication (a.k.a. pentad) 6 bits – the size of code points in Univac Fieldata, in IBM "BCD" format, and in Braille. Enough ...
Because the definition of a byte is related to the number of bits composing a character, some older computers have used a different bit length for their byte. [2] In many computer architectures , the byte is the smallest addressable unit , the atom of addressability, say.
Historically, a byte was the number of bits used to encode a character of text in the computer, which depended on computer hardware architecture, but today it almost always means eight bits – that is, an octet. An 8-bit byte can represent 256 (2 8) distinct values, such as non-negative integers from 0 to 255, or signed integers from −128 to ...
Similarly, the most significant bit (MSb) represents the highest-order place of the binary integer. The LSb is sometimes referred to as the low-order bit or right-most bit, due to the convention in positional notation of writing less significant digits further to the right. The MSb is similarly referred to as the high-order bit or left-most bit.
The z/Architecture, which is the 64-bit member of that architecture family, continues to refer to 16-bit halfwords, 32-bit words, and 64-bit doublewords, and additionally features 128-bit quadwords. In general, new processors must use the same data word lengths and virtual address widths as an older processor to have binary compatibility with ...
The term bit length is technical shorthand for this measure. For example, computer processors are often designed to process data grouped into words of a given length of bits (8 bit, 16 bit, 32 bit, 64 bit, etc.). The bit length of each word defines, for one thing, how many memory locations can be independently addressed by the processor.