[techspeak] A unit of memory or data equal to the amount used to
represent one character; on modern architectures this is invariably 8
bits. Some older architectures used byte for quantities of 6, 7, or
(especially) 9 bits, and the PDP-10 supported bytes that were
actually bitfields of 1 to 36 bits! These usages are now obsolete,
killed off by universal adoption of power-of-2 word sizes.
Historical note: The term was coined by Werner Buchholz in 1956
during the early design phase for the IBM Stretch computer;
originally it was described as 1 to 6 bits (typical I/O equipment of
the period used 6-bit chunks of information). The move to an 8-bit
byte happened in late 1956, and this size was later adopted and
promulgated as a standard by the System/360. The word was coined by
mutating the word `bite' so it would not be accidentally misspelled
as {bit}. See also {nybble}.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {dynner}{nybble}{playte}]