Abstract
Computers store everything as bits; each bit has a value of either 0 or 1. (Bit is an acronym for binary digit.) Every normal computer deals not with these bits but with combinations of eight bits, called a byte. One bit can represent two values (0 and 1), two bits can represent four values (00, 01, 10, 11), and the eight bits of a byte can represent 256, or 28, distinct values. Note that in some countries, the term octet is used instead of byte to refer to an eight-bit group.
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© 1995 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.
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Fortner, B. (1995). Byte Numbers. In: The Data Handbook. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2538-6_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2538-6_3
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7572-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-2538-6
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