A byte is eight bits.
Comment on 10001
xenoclast@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It bothers me it’s not in 4 bit “bytes” even though I know it’s just a convention for computers
satans_methpipe@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
Revan343@lemmy.ca 16 hours ago
That’s a matter of convention, not technical definition. A byte can be any number of bits, depending on hardware. For a while 6 bit bytes were common. RFC 791 refers to an 8 bit byte as an octet
Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 15 hours ago
RFC 791 refers to an 8 bit byte as an octet
French people do too. On second hand websites in Switzerland you always see that some disks are listed for e.g. 250 Go and others for 250 GB, depending on the first language of the seller.
smeenz@lemmy.nz 15 hours ago
4 bits is a nybble
xenoclast@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Yes. I am dumb.
finitebanjo@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
You can do all of math in binary, it isn’t just for computers. In fact, the proof for “Russian Peasant Multiplication” was written in binary.
ziggurat@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
So you can do all mathematical operations in binary, but you can’t represent all numbers in binary like 0.3, which is a repeating number, and had the same issues as a number like 1/3 in decimal where you can’t avoid rounding errors
finitebanjo@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
I’m not sure what sort of point you think you’re making but 0.0100110011 in binary is only 0.065% off from 0.3
Many fractions in decimal are also repeating numbers or very long trailing numbers, I especially encounter a lot when working with time which is base 60.
Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 15 hours ago
The four bit sections of eight bit bytes are called nibbles, you know because nibbles are small bites
xenoclast@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Ugh jeez… right. I literally always mess that up