| ▲ | hvs 25 days ago |
| A byte is always 8 bits. The word you're looking for is `word-size` which, in this case would be 4 bits. |
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| ▲ | jlokier 25 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| A byte is not always 8 bits on old machines, though it is standardised as 8 bits nowadays. This is why network RFCs talk of "octets", to avoid the ambiguity. Octets are always 8 bits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octet_(computing) |
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| ▲ | duped 25 days ago | parent | next [-] | | The definition of a byte today is different than the definition of byte when those machines were manufactured. Just like how 'foot' is now standardized(*) (* technically, a 'foot' is not a standard unit of measure but that's due to the long history of 'foot' not being standardized until relatively recently) | | |
| ▲ | fc417fc802 25 days ago | parent [-] | | No. 8 bit bytes are the de facto standard but that is in no way official nor the definition of the word. You can find modern niche projects with non-8-bit bytes (and by extension non-32 or 64 bit words). |
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| ▲ | djmips 25 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | I didn't realize that there was a 16 bit name called a 'chomp' haha. But more formally hextet. |
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| ▲ | fc417fc802 25 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| That is false. A byte is the base grouping and a word is the native size for a given operation. Some architectures even expose multiple word sizes. (TBF the entire concept can be quite fuzzy depending on the implementation.) |
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| ▲ | quantified 25 days ago | parent | prev [-] |
| I think you might be missing the attempt at humor. |
