# byte (B)

A byte is a series of binary elements that form a logical digital unit. Unless otherwise specified, a byte consists of 8 bits and is also called an octet in data communication. If a byte consists of seven bits, it is called a seven-bit byte or septet, and a 6-bit byte or six-bit byte is called a sextet.

A byte is a unit of data used by most computers to represent a character, letter, or number. Normally, four bytes are combined to form a data word. Such a unit of four bytes can be read and processed as an instruction by 32-bit processors. Other processors are geared for smaller data words of two or one byte.

Generally used and IEC defined byte specifications

In terms of memory technology, a byte is the smallest addressable unit of memory and allows 256 (2^8) different addresses or characters (e.g. digits, letters, special characters) to be addressed or represented. The byte is usually provided with a prefix, so with kilo as kilobyte( KB), megabyte ( MB), gigabyte ( GB), terabyte ( TB), petabyte ( PB), exabyte ( EB), zettabyte (ZB) or also yottabyte (YB). For kilobytes (KB), note that the "K" appears as an uppercase letter because it is 2^10 or 1,024 and not 1,000 as in a lowercase "k".

A megabyte (MB) consists of 1,024 kilobytes (KB), a gigabyte consists of 1,024 megabytes (MB), a terabyte consists of 1,024 gigabytes (GB), a petabyte consists of 1,024 terabytes (TB), an exabyte consists of 1,024 petabytes (PB), and a zettabyte consists of 1,024 exabytes (EB).

For certain addressing, a byte is divided into two times four bits. This unit is called half byte, nibble or quad bit.

Informations:
 Englisch: byte - B Updated at: 22.01.2022 #Words: 264 Links: binary, digital, unit (U), octet, data communication (DC) Translations: DE Sharing: