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== References == |
== References == |
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<ref name="Buchholz_1956_1"> |
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<ref name="Buchholz_1956_1">{{anchor|Buchholz-1956-1}}{{cite book |title=The Link System |chapter=7. The Shift Matrix |first=Werner |last=Buchholz |author-link=Werner Buchholz |date=1956-06-11 |id=[[IBM Stretch|Stretch]] Memo No. 39G |publisher=[[IBM]] |pages=5–6 |chapter-url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/IBM/Stretch/pdfs/06-07/102632284.pdf |access-date=2016-04-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404152534/http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/IBM/Stretch/pdfs/06-07/102632284.pdf |archive-date=2017-04-04 |quote=[…] Most important, from the point of view of editing, will be the ability to handle any characters or digits, from 1 to 6 bits long.<br />Figure 2 shows the Shift Matrix to be used to convert a 60-bit [[word (computer architecture)|word]], coming from Memory in parallel, into [[character (computing)|characters]], or 'bytes' as we have called them, to be sent to the [[serial adder|Adder]] serially. The 60 bits are dumped into [[magnetic core]]s on six different levels. Thus, if a 1 comes out of position 9, it appears in all six cores underneath. Pulsing any diagonal line will send the six bits stored along that line to the Adder. The Adder may accept all or only some of the bits.<br />Assume that it is desired to operate on 4 bit [[decimal digit]]s, starting at the right. The 0-diagonal is pulsed first, sending out the six bits 0 to 5, of which the Adder accepts only the first four (0–3). Bits 4 and 5 are ignored. Next, the 4 diagonal is pulsed. This sends out bits 4 to 9, of which the last two are again ignored, and so on.<br />It is just as easy to use all six bits in [[alphanumeric]] work, or to handle bytes of only one bit for logical analysis, or to offset the bytes by any number of bits. All this can be done by pulling the appropriate shift diagonals. An analogous matrix arrangement is used to change from serial to parallel operation at the output of the adder. […]}}</ref> |
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{{anchor|Buchholz-1956-1}} |
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<!----> |
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{{cite book |
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|title=The Link System |
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|chapter=7. The Shift Matrix |
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|first=Werner |
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|last=Buchholz |
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|author-link=Werner Buchholz |
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|date=1956-06-11 |
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|id=[[IBM Stretch|Stretch]] Memo No. 39G |
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|publisher=[[IBM]] |
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|pages=5-6 |
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|chapter-url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/IBM/Stretch/pdfs/06-07/102632284.pdf |
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|access-date=2016-04-04 |
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|url-status=dead |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404152534/http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/IBM/Stretch/pdfs/06-07/102632284.pdf |
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|archive-date=2017-04-04 |
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|quote=<br/> |
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[…] Most important, from the point of view of editing, will be the ability to handle any characters or digits, from 1 to 6 bits long.<br/> |
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Figure 2 shows the Shift Matrix to be used to convert a 60-bit [[word (computer architecture)|word]], coming from Memory in parallel, into [[character (computing)|characters]], or 'bytes' as we have called them, to be sent to the [[serial adder|Adder]] serially. The 60 bits are dumped into [[magnetic core]]s on six different levels. Thus, if a 1 comes out of position 9, it appears in all six cores underneath. Pulsing any diagonal line will send the six bits stored along that line to the Adder. The Adder may accept all or only some of the bits.<br/> |
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Assume that it is desired to operate on 4 bit [[decimal digit]]s, starting at the right. The 0-diagonal is pulsed first, sending out the six bits 0 to 5, of which the Adder accepts only the first four (0-3). Bits 4 and 5 are ignored. Next, the 4 diagonal is pulsed. This sends out bits 4 to 9, of which the last two are again ignored, and so on.<br/> |
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It is just as easy to use all six bits in [[alphanumeric]] work, or to handle bytes of only one bit for logical analysis, or to offset the bytes by any number of bits. All this can be done by pulling the appropriate shift diagonals. An analogous matrix arrangement is used to change from serial to parallel operation at the output of the adder. […]}} |
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</ref> |
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<ref name="Buchholz_1956_2">{{cite book |title=Memory Word Length |chapter=5. Input-Output |first=Werner |last=Buchholz |author-link=Werner Buchholz |date=1956-07-31 |id=[[IBM Stretch|Stretch]] Memo No. 40 |publisher=[[IBM]] |page=2 |chapter-url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/IBM/Stretch/pdfs/06-08/102632289.pdf |access-date=2016-04-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404160423/http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/IBM/Stretch/pdfs/06-08/102632289.pdf |archive-date=2017-04-04 |quote=[…] 60 is a multiple of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Hence bytes of length from 1 to 6 bits can be packed efficiently into a 60-bit [[word (computer architecture)|word]] without having to split a byte between one word and the next. If longer bytes were needed, 60 bits would, of course, no longer be ideal. With present applications, 1, 4, and 6 bits are the really important cases.<br />With 64-bit words, it would often be necessary to make some compromises, such as leaving 4 bits unused in a word when dealing with 6-bit bytes at the input and output. However, the LINK Computer can be equipped to edit out these gaps and to permit handling of bytes which are split between words. […]}}</ref> |
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<ref name="Buchholz_1956_2"> |
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<ref name="Buchholz_1956_3">{{anchor|Buchholz-1956-3}}{{cite book |title=Memory Word Length and Indexing |chapter=2. Input-Output Byte Size |first=Werner |last=Buchholz |author-link=Werner Buchholz |date=1956-09-19 |id=[[IBM Stretch|Stretch]] Memo No. 45 |publisher=[[IBM]] |page=1 |chapter-url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/IBM/Stretch/pdfs/06-08/102632292.pdf |access-date=2016-04-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404161611/http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/IBM/Stretch/pdfs/06-08/102632292.pdf |archive-date=2017-04-04 |quote=[…] The maximum input-output byte size for serial operation will now be 8 bits, not counting any error detection and correction bits. Thus, the Exchange will operate on an 8-bit byte basis, and any input-output units with less than 8 bits per byte will leave the remaining bits blank. The resultant gaps can be edited out later by programming […]}}</ref> |
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{{cite book |
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|title=Memory Word Length |
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|chapter=5. Input-Output |
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|first=Werner |
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|last=Buchholz |
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|author-link=Werner Buchholz |
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|date=1956-07-31 |
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|id=[[IBM Stretch|Stretch]] Memo No. 40 |
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|publisher=[[IBM]] |
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|page=2 |
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|chapter-url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/IBM/Stretch/pdfs/06-08/102632289.pdf |
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|access-date=2016-04-04 |
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|url-status=dead |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404160423/http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/IBM/Stretch/pdfs/06-08/102632289.pdf |
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|archive-date=2017-04-04 |
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|quote=<br/> |
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[…] 60 is a multiple of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Hence bytes of length from 1 to 6 bits can be packed efficiently into a 60-bit [[word (computer architecture)|word]] without having to split a byte between one word and the next. If longer bytes were needed, 60 bits would, of course, no longer be ideal. With present applications, 1, 4, and 6 bits are the really important cases.<br/> |
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With 64-bit words, it would often be necessary to make some compromises, such as leaving 4 bits unused in a word when dealing with 6-bit bytes at the input and output. However, the LINK Computer can be equipped to edit out these gaps and to permit handling of bytes which are split between words. […]}} |
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</ref> |
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<!----> |
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<ref name="Buchholz_1962">{{anchor|Buchholz-1962}}{{citation |title=Planning a Computer System – Project Stretch |first1=Gerrit Anne |last1=Blaauw |author-link1=Gerrit Anne Blaauw |first2=Frederick Phillips |last2=Brooks, Jr. |author-link2=Frederick Phillips Brooks, Jr. |first3=Werner |last3=Buchholz |author-link3=Werner Buchholz |editor-first=Werner |editor-last=Buchholz |editor-link=Werner Buchholz |publisher=[[McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.]] / The Maple Press Company, York, PA. |lccn=61-10466 |year=1962 |chapter=4: Natural Data Units |pages=39–40 |chapter-url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/IBM/Stretch/pdfs/Buchholz_102636426.pdf |access-date=2017-04-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403014651/http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/IBM/Stretch/pdfs/Buchholz_102636426.pdf |archive-date=2017-04-03 |quote=Terms used here to describe the structure imposed by the machine design, in addition to ''[[bit]]'', are listed below.<br />''Byte'' denotes a group of bits used to encode a character, or the number of bits transmitted in parallel to and from input-output units. A term other than ''[[character (computing)|character]]'' is used here because a given character may be represented in different applications by more than one code, and different codes may use different numbers of bits (i.e., different byte sizes). In input-output transmission the grouping of bits may be completely arbitrary and have no relation to actual characters. (The term is coined from ''[[bite]]'', but respelled to avoid accidental mutation to ''bit''.)<br />A ''[[Word (unit)|word]]'' consists of the number of data bits transmitted in parallel from or to memory in one memory cycle. [[Word size]] is thus defined as a structural property of the memory. (The term ''[[catena (unit)|catena]]'' was coined for this purpose by the designers of the [[Groupe Bull|Bull]] {{ill|Bull Gamma 60{{!}}GAMMA 60|fr|Gamma 60}} computer.)<br />''[[Block (data storage)|Block]]'' refers to the number of words transmitted to or from an input-output unit in response to a single input-output instruction. Block size is a structural property of an input-output unit; it may have been fixed by the design or left to be varied by the program.}}</ref> |
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<ref name="Buchholz_1956_3"> |
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<ref name="Bemer_1959">{{citation |first=Robert William |last=Bemer |author-link=Robert William Bemer |title=A proposal for a generalized card code of 256 characters |journal=[[Communications of the ACM]] |volume=2 |number=9 |pages=19–23 |year=1959 |doi=10.1145/368424.368435|s2cid=36115735 }}</ref> |
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{{anchor|Buchholz-1956-3}} |
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<!----> |
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{{cite book |
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|title=Memory Word Length and Indexing |
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|chapter=2. Input-Output Byte Size |
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|first=Werner |
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|last=Buchholz |
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|author-link=Werner Buchholz |
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|date=1956-09-19 |
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|id=[[IBM Stretch|Stretch]] Memo No. 45 |
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|publisher=[[IBM]] |
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|page=1 |
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|chapter-url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/IBM/Stretch/pdfs/06-08/102632292.pdf |
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|access-date=2016-04-04 |
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|url-status=dead |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404161611/http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/IBM/Stretch/pdfs/06-08/102632292.pdf |
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|archive-date=2017-04-04 |
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|quote=<br/> |
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[…] The maximum input-output byte size for serial operation will now be 8 bits, not counting any error detection and correction bits. Thus, the Exchange will operate on an 8-bit byte basis, and any input-output units with less than 8 bits per byte will leave the remaining bits blank. The resultant gaps can be edited out later by programming […]}} |
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</ref> |
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<!----> |
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<ref name="CHM_1964">{{cite web |title=Computer History Museum – Exhibits – Internet History – 1964: Internet History 1962 to 1992 |publisher=[[Computer History Museum]] |date=2017 |orig-year=2015 |url=http://www.computerhistory.org/internet_history/#1964 |access-date=2017-04-03 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403115211/http://www.computerhistory.org/internethistory/ |archive-date=2017-04-03}}</ref> |
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<ref name="Buchholz_1962"> |
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<ref name="MIXF">{{cite web |title=Metric-Interchange-Format |first=Aubrey |last=Jaffer |author-link=Aubrey Jaffer |date=2011 |orig-year=2008 |url=http://people.csail.mit.edu/jaffer/MIXF |access-date=2017-04-03 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403121705/https://people.csail.mit.edu/jaffer/MIXF/ |archive-date=2017-04-03}}</ref> |
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{{anchor|Buchholz-1962}} |
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<!----> |
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{{citation |
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|title=Planning a Computer System - Project Stretch |
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|first1=Gerrit Anne |
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|last1=Blaauw |
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|author-link1=Gerrit Anne Blaauw |
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|first2=Frederick Phillips |
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|last2=Brooks, Jr. |
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|author-link2=Frederick Phillips Brooks, Jr. |
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|first3=Werner |
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|last3=Buchholz |
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|author-link3=Werner Buchholz |
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|editor-first=Werner |
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|editor-last=Buchholz |
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|editor-link=Werner Buchholz |
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|publisher=[[McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.]] / The Maple Press Company, York, PA. |
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|lccn=61-10466 |
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|year=1962 |
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|chapter=4: Natural Data Units |
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|pages=39-40 |
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|chapter-url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/IBM/Stretch/pdfs/Buchholz_102636426.pdf |
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|access-date=2017-04-03 |
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|url-status=dead |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403014651/http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/IBM/Stretch/pdfs/Buchholz_102636426.pdf |
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|archive-date=2017-04-03 |
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|quote=<br/> |
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Terms used here to describe the structure imposed by the machine design, in addition to ''[[bit]]'', are listed below.<br/> |
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''Byte'' denotes a group of bits used to encode a character, or the number of bits transmitted in parallel to and from input-output units. A term other than ''[[character (computing)|character]]'' is used here because a given character may be represented in different applications by more than one code, and different codes may use different numbers of bits (i.e., different byte sizes). In input-output transmission the grouping of bits may be completely arbitrary and have no relation to actual characters. (The term is coined from ''[[bite]]'', but respelled to avoid accidental mutation to ''bit''.)<br/> |
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A ''[[Word (unit)|word]]'' consists of the number of data bits transmitted in parallel from or to memory in one memory cycle. [[Word size]] is thus defined as a structural property of the memory. (The term ''[[catena (unit)|catena]]'' was coined for this purpose by the designers of the [[Groupe Bull|Bull]] {{ill|Bull Gamma 60{{!}}GAMMA 60|fr|Gamma 60}} computer.)<br/> |
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''[[Block (data storage)|Block]]'' refers to the number of words transmitted to or from an input-output unit in response to a single input-output instruction. Block size is a structural property of an input-output unit; it may have been fixed by the design or left to be varied by the program.}} |
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</ref> |
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<!----> |
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<ref name="TCPIP">{{cite web |title=The TCP/IP Guide – Binary Information and Representation: Bits, Bytes, Nibbles, Octets and Characters – Byte versus Octet |version=3.0 |date=2005-09-20 |orig-year=2001 |first=Charles M. |last=Kozierok |url=http://www.tcpipguide.com/free/t_BinaryInformationandRepresentationBitsBytesNibbles-3.htm |access-date=2017-04-03 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403122042/http://www.tcpipguide.com/free/t_BinaryInformationandRepresentationBitsBytesNibbles-3.htm |archive-date=2017-04-03}}</ref> |
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<ref name="Bemer_1959"> |
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<ref name="Timeline_1956">{{cite web |title=Timeline of the IBM Stretch/Harvest era (1956–1961) |publisher=[[Computer History Museum]] |date=June 1956 |url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/IBM/Stretch/102636400.txt |access-date=2017-04-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160429212717/http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/IBM/Stretch/102636400.txt |archive-date=2016-04-29 |quote=1956 Summer: [[Gerrit Blaauw]], [[Fred Brooks]], [[Werner Buchholz]], [[John Cocke (computer scientist)|John Cocke]] and Jim Pomerene join the [[IBM Stretch|Stretch]] team. Lloyd Hunter provides [[transistor]] leadership.<br />{{sic|1956 July|expected=1956 June}}: In a report Werner Buchholz lists the advantages of a 64-bit word length for Stretch. It also supports [[NSA]]'s requirement for 8-bit bytes. Werner's term "Byte" first popularized in this memo.}} (NB. This timeline erroneously specifies the birth date of the term "byte" as ''[[#Note-Dates|July 1956]]'', while Buchholz actually used the term as early as ''[[#Buchholz-1956-1|June 1956]]''.)</ref> |
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<span name="Bemer_1959"></span> |
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<!----> |
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{{citation |
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|first=Robert William |
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|last=Bemer |
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|author-link=Robert William Bemer |
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|title=A proposal for a generalized card code of 256 characters |
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|journal=[[Communications of the ACM]] |
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|volume=2 |
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|number=9 |
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|pages=19-23 |
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|year=1959 |
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|doi=10.1145/368424.368435 |
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|s2cid=36115735}} |
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</ref> |
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<!----> |
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<ref name="ESR">{{cite web |title=byte definition |first=Eric Steven |last=Raymond |author-link=Eric Steven Raymond |date=2017 |orig-year=2003 |url=http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/B/byte.html |access-date=2017-04-03 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403120304/http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/B/byte.html |archive-date=2017-04-03}}</ref> |
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<ref name="CHM_1964"> |
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<ref name="Blaauw_1959">{{anchor|Blaauw-1959}}{{cite journal |title=Processing Data in Bits and Pieces |first1=Gerrit Anne |last1=Blaauw |author-link1=Gerrit Anne Blaauw |first2=Frederick Phillips |last2=Brooks, Jr. |author-link2=Frederick Phillips Brooks, Jr. |first3=Werner |last3=Buchholz |author-link3=Werner Buchholz |journal=[[IRE Transactions on Electronic Computers]] |date=June 1959 |page=121}}</ref> |
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{{cite web |
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|title=Internet History of 1960s # 1964 |
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|publisher=[[Computer History Museum]] |
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|date=2017 |
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|orig-year=2015 |
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|url=https://www.computerhistory.org/internethistory/1960s/#1964 |
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|access-date=2022-08-17 |
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|url-status=live |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220624184757/https://www.computerhistory.org/internethistory/1960s/#1964 |
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|archive-date=2022-06-24}} |
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</ref> |
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<!----> |
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<ref name="Buchholz_1977">{{anchor|Buchholz-1977}}{{cite journal |last=Buchholz |first=Werner |author-link=Werner Buchholz |title=The Word 'Byte' Comes of Age... |journal=[[Byte Magazine]] |date=February 1977 |volume=2 |issue=2 |page=144 |url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1977-02/1977_02_BYTE_02-02_Usable_Systems#page/n145/mode/2up |quote=<!-- The Word "Byte" Comes of Age...<br />''We received the following from W Buchholz, one of the individuals who was working on IBM's Project Stretch in the mid 1950s. His letter tells the story.''<br />Not being a regular reader of your magazine, I heard about the question in the November 1976 issue regarding the origin of the term "byte" from a colleague who knew that I had prepetrated this piece of jargon ''[see page 77 of November 1976 BYTE, "Olde Englishe"]''. I searched my files and could not locate a birth certificate. But I am sure that "byte" is coming of age in 1977 with its 21st birthday. Many have assumed that byte, meaning 8 bits, originated with the IBM System/360, which spread such bytes far and wide in the mid-1960s. The editor is correct in pointing out that the term goes back to the earlier Stretch computer (but incorrect in that Stretch was the first, not the last, of IBM's second-generation transistorized computers to be developed). -->[…] The first reference found in the files was contained in an internal memo written in June 1956 during the early days of developing [[IBM Stretch|Stretch]]. A byte was described as consisting of any number of parallel bits from one to six. Thus a byte was assumed to have a length appropriate for the occasion. Its first use was in the context of the input–output equipment of the 1950s, which handled six bits at a time. The possibility of going to 8-bit bytes was considered in [[#Note-Dates|August 1956]] and incorporated in the design of Stretch [[#Buchholz-1956-3|shortly thereafter]]. The first published reference to the term occurred in 1959 in a paper '[[#Blaauw-1959|Processing Data in Bits and Pieces]]' by [[Gerrit Anne Blaauw|G A Blaauw]], [[Frederick Phillips Brooks, Jr.|F P Brooks Jr]] and [[Werner Buchholz|W Buchholz]] in the ''[[IRE Transactions on Electronic Computers]]'', June 1959, page 121. The notions of that paper were elaborated in Chapter 4 of ''[[#Buchholz-1962|Planning a Computer System (Project Stretch)]]'', edited by W Buchholz, [[McGraw-Hill Book Company]] (1962). The rationale for coining the term was explained there on page 40 as follows:<br />Byte ''denotes a group of bits used to encode a character, or the number of bits transmitted in parallel to and from input-output units. A term other than ''character'' is used here because a given character may be represented in different applications by more than one code, and different codes may use different numbers of bits (ie, different byte sizes). In input-output transmission the grouping of bits may be completely arbitrary and have no relation to actual characters. (The term is coined from ''[[bite]]'', but respelled to avoid accidental mutation to ''bit''.)''<br />[[System/360]] took over many of the Stretch concepts, including the basic byte and word sizes, which are powers of 2. For economy, however, the byte size was fixed at the 8 bit maximum, and addressing at the bit level was replaced by byte addressing. [...]<!-- Since then the term byte has generally meant 8 bits, and it has thus passed into the general vocabulary. Are there any other terms coined especially for the computer field which have found their way into general dictionaries of English language?<br />W. Buchholz<br />24 Edge Hill Rd<br />Wappingers Fall NY 12590 -->}}</ref> |
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<ref name="MIXF"> |
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<ref name="Bemer_2000">{{cite web |title=Why is a byte 8 bits? Or is it? |first=Robert William |last=Bemer |author-link=Robert William Bemer |date=2000-08-08 |work=Computer History Vignettes |url=http://www.bobbemer.com/BYTE.HTM |access-date=2017-04-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403130829/http://www.bobbemer.com/BYTE.HTM# |archive-date=2017-04-03 |quote=[…] I came to work for [[IBM]], and saw all the confusion caused by the 64-character limitation. Especially when we started to think about word processing, which would require both upper and lower case. [...]<!-- Add 26 lower case letters to 47 existing, and one got 73 -- 9 more than 6 bits could represent. --> I even made a proposal (in view of [[IBM Stretch|STRETCH]], the very first computer I know of with an 8-bit byte) that would extend the number of [[punch card]] character codes to 256 […].<!-- [1]. Some folks took it seriously. I thought of it as a spoof. --> So some folks started thinking about 7-bit characters, but this was ridiculous. With IBM's STRETCH computer as background, handling 64-character words divisible into groups of 8 (I designed the character set for it, under the guidance of Dr. [[Werner Buchholz]], the man who DID coin the term 'byte' for an 8-bit grouping). […]<!-- [2] --> It seemed reasonable to make a universal 8-bit character set, handling up to 256. In those days my mantra was 'powers of 2 are magic'. And so the group I headed developed and justified such a proposal […]<!-- [3]. That was a little too much progress when presented to the standards group that was to formalize ASCII, so they stopped short for the moment with a 7-bit set, or else an 8-bit set with the upper half left for future work. --> The [[IBM System 360|IBM 360]] used 8-bit characters, although not ASCII directly. Thus Buchholz's 'byte' caught on everywhere. I myself did not like the name for many reasons. The design had 8 bits moving around in parallel. But then came a new IBM part, with 9 bits for self-checking, both inside the CPU and in the [[tape drive]]s. I exposed this 9-bit byte to the press in 1973. But long before that, when I headed software operations for [[Cie. Bull]] in France in 1965–66, I insisted that 'byte' be deprecated in favor of '[[octet (computing)|octet]]'. […]<!-- You can notice that my preference then is now the preferred term. --> It is justified by new communications methods that can carry 16, 32, 64, and even 128 bits in parallel. But some foolish people now refer to a '16-bit byte' because of this parallel transfer, which is visible in the [[UNICODE]] set. I'm not sure, but maybe this should be called a '[[hextet]]'. […]<!-- But you will notice that I am still correct. Powers of 2 are still magic! -->}}</ref> |
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{{cite web |
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|title=Metric-Interchange-Format |
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|first=Aubrey |
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|last=Jaffer |
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|author-link=Aubrey Jaffer |
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|date=2011 |
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|orig-year=2008 |
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|url=https://people.csail.mit.edu/jaffer/MIXF/ |
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|access-date=2017-04-03 |
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|url-status=live |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403121705/https://people.csail.mit.edu/jaffer/MIXF/ |
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|archive-date=2017-04-03}} |
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</ref> |
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<!----> |
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<ref name="IEC_Binary"><br/> |
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<ref name="TCPIP"> |
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{{cite web |
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|title=The TCP/IP Guide - Binary Information and Representation: Bits, Bytes, Nibbles, Octets and Characters - Byte versus Octet |
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|version=3.0 |
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|date=2005-09-20 |
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|orig-year=2001 |
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|first=Charles M. |
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|last=Kozierok |
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|url=http://www.tcpipguide.com/free/t_BinaryInformationandRepresentationBitsBytesNibbles-3.htm |
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|access-date=2017-04-03 |
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|url-status=live |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403122042/http://www.tcpipguide.com/free/t_BinaryInformationandRepresentationBitsBytesNibbles-3.htm |
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|archive-date=2017-04-03}} |
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</ref> |
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<!----> |
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<ref name="Timeline_1956"> |
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{{cite web |
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|title=Timeline of the IBM Stretch/Harvest era (1956-1961) |
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|publisher=[[Computer History Museum]] |
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|date=June 1956 |
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|url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/IBM/Stretch/102636400.txt |
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|access-date=2017-04-03 |
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|url-status=dead |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160429212717/http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/IBM/Stretch/102636400.txt |
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|archive-date=2016-04-29 |
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|quote=<br/> |
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1956 Summer: [[Gerrit Blaauw]], [[Fred Brooks]], [[Werner Buchholz]], [[John Cocke (computer scientist)|John Cocke]] and Jim Pomerene join the [[IBM Stretch|Stretch]] team. Lloyd Hunter provides [[transistor]] leadership.<br/> |
|||
{{sic|1956 July|expected=1956 June}}: In a report Werner Buchholz lists the advantages of a 64-bit word length for Stretch. It also supports [[NSA]]'s requirement for 8-bit bytes. Werner's term "Byte" first popularized in this memo.}}<br/> |
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NB. This timeline erroneously specifies the birth date of the term "byte" as ''[[#Note-Dates|July 1956]]'', while Buchholz actually used the term as early as ''[[#Buchholz-1956-1|June 1956]]''. |
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</ref> |
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<!----> |
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<ref name="ESR"> |
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{{cite web |
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|title=byte definition |
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|first=Eric Steven |
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|last=Raymond |
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|author-link=Eric Steven Raymond |
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|date=2017 |
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|orig-year=2003 |
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|url=http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/B/byte.html |
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|access-date=2017-04-03 |
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|url-status=live |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403120304/http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/B/byte.html |
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|archive-date=2017-04-03}} |
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</ref> |
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<!----> |
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<ref name="Blaauw_1959"> |
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{{anchor|Blaauw-1959}} |
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<!----> |
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{{cite journal |
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|title=Processing Data in Bits and Pieces |
|||
|first1=Gerrit Anne |
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|last1=Blaauw |
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|author-link1=Gerrit Anne Blaauw |
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|first2=Frederick Phillips |
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|last2=Brooks, Jr. |
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|author-link2=Frederick Phillips Brooks, Jr. |
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|first3=Werner |
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|last3=Buchholz |
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|author-link3=Werner Buchholz |
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|journal=[[IRE Transactions on Electronic Computers]] |
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|date=June 1959 |
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|page=121}} |
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</ref> |
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<!----> |
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<ref name="Buchholz_1977"> |
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{{anchor|Buchholz-1977}} |
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<!----> |
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{{cite journal |
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|last=Buchholz |
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|first=Werner |
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|author-link=Werner Buchholz |
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|title=The Word "Byte" Comes of Age... |
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|journal=[[Byte Magazine]] |
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|date=February 1977 |
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|volume=2 |
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|issue=2 |
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|page=144 |
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|url=https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1977-02/page/n145/mode/1up |
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|quote=<br/> |
|||
<span style="color: #7f7f7f">''We received the following from W Buchholz, one of the individuals who was working on IBM's Project Stretch in the mid 1950s. His letter tells the story.''<br/> |
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<br/> |
|||
Not being a regular reader of your magazine, I heard about the question in the November 1976 issue regarding the origin of the term "byte" from a colleague who knew that I had prepetrated this piece of jargon ''[see page 77 of November 1976 BYTE, "Olde Englishe"]''. I searched my files and could not locate a birth certificate. But I am sure that "byte" is coming of age in 1977 with its 21st birthday.<br/> |
|||
Many have assumed that byte, meaning 8 bits, originated with the IBM System/360, which spread such bytes far and wide in the mid-1960s. The editor is correct in pointing out that the term goes back to the earlier Stretch computer (but incorrect in that Stretch was the first, not the last, of IBM's second-generation transistorized computers to be developed).</span><br/> |
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<&>The first reference found in the files was contained in an internal memo written in June 1956 during the early days of developing [[IBM Stretch|Stretch]]. A byte was described as consisting of any number of parallel bits from one to six. Thus a byte was assumed to have a length appropriate for the occasion. Its first use was in the context of the input-output equipment of the 1950s, which handled six bits at a time. The possibility of going to 8-bit bytes was considered in [[#Note-Dates|August 1956]] and incorporated in the design of Stretch [[#Buchholz-1956-3|shortly thereafter]].<br/> |
|||
The first published reference to the term occurred in 1959 in a paper '[[#Blaauw-1959|Processing Data in Bits and Pieces]]' by [[Gerrit Anne Blaauw|G A Blaauw]], [[Frederick Phillips Brooks, Jr.|F P Brooks Jr]] and [[Werner Buchholz|W Buchholz]] in the ''[[IRE Transactions on Electronic Computers]]'', June 1959, page 121. The notions of that paper were elaborated in Chapter 4 of ''[[#Buchholz-1962|Planning a Computer System (Project Stretch)]]'', edited by W Buchholz, [[McGraw-Hill Book Company]] (1962). The rationale for coining the term was explained there on page 40 as follows: [<br/><span style="display: inline-block; margin-left: 1em"> |
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''Byte'' denotes a group of bits used to encode a character, or the number of bits transmitted in parallel to and from input-output units. A term other than ''character'' is used here because a given character may be represented in different applications by more than one code, and different codes may use different numbers of bits (ie, different byte sizes). In input-output transmission the grouping of bits may be completely arbitrary and have no relation to actual characters. (The term is coined from ''[[bite]]'', but respelled to avoid accidental mutation to ''bit''.) ]</span><br/> |
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<.> [[System/360]] took over many of the Stretch concepts, including the basic byte and word sizes, which are powers of 2. For economy, however, the byte size was fixed at the 8 bit maximum, and addressing at the bit level was replaced by byte addressing.</&> <span style="color: #7f7f7f">Since then the term byte has generally meant 8 bits, and it has thus passed into the general vocabulary.<br/> |
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Are there any other terms coined especially for the computer field which have found their way into general dictionaries of English language?</span>}} |
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</ref> |
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<!----> |
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<ref name="Bemer_2000"> |
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{{cite web |
|||
|title=Why is a byte 8 bits? Or is it? |
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|first=Robert William |
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|last=Bemer |
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|author-link=Robert William Bemer |
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|date=2000-08-08 |
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|work=Computer History Vignettes |
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|url=http://www.bobbemer.com/BYTE.HTM |
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|access-date=2017-04-03 |
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|url-status=dead |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403130829/http://www.bobbemer.com/BYTE.HTM |
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|archive-date=2017-04-03 |
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|quote=<br/> |
|||
<span style="color: #7f7f7f">...</span> <&>I came to work for [[IBM]], and saw all the confusion caused by the 64-character limitation. Especially when we started to think about word processing, which would require both upper and lower case.</&> <span style="color: #7f7f7f">Add 26 lower case letters to 47 existing, and one got 73 -- 9 more than 6 bits could represent.</span><br/> |
|||
<&>I even made a proposal (in view of [[IBM Stretch|STRETCH]], the very first computer I know of with an 8-bit byte) that would extend the number of [[punch card]] character codes to 256 [[#Bemer_1959|[1]]].</&> <span style="color: #7f7f7f">Some folks took it seriously. I thought of it as a spoof.</span><br/> |
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<&>So some folks started thinking about 7-bit characters, but this was ridiculous. With IBM's STRETCH computer as background, handling 64-character words divisible into groups of 8 (I designed the character set for it, under the guidance of Dr. [[Werner Buchholz]], the man who DID coin the term "byte" for an 8-bit grouping). [2] It seemed reasonable to make a universal 8-bit character set, handling up to 256. In those days my mantra was "powers of 2 are magic". And so the group I headed developed and justified such a proposal [3].</&><br/> |
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<span style="color: #7f7f7f">That was a little too much progress when presented to the standards group that was to formalize ASCII, so they stopped short for the moment with a 7-bit set, or else an 8-bit set with the upper half left for future work.</span><br/> |
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<&>The [[IBM System 360|IBM 360]] used 8-bit characters, although not ASCII directly. Thus Buchholz's "byte" caught on everywhere. I myself did not like the name for many reasons. The design had 8 bits moving around in parallel. But then came a new IBM part, with 9 bits for self-checking, both inside the CPU and in the [[tape drive]]s. I exposed this 9-bit byte to the press in 1973. But long before that, when I headed software operations for [[Cie. Bull]] in France in 1965-66, I insisted that 'byte' be deprecated in favor of "[[octet (computing)|octet]]".</&><br/> |
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<span style="color: #7f7f7f">You can notice that my preference then is now the preferred term.</span> <&>It is justified by new communications methods that can carry 16, 32, 64, and even 128 bits in parallel. But some foolish people now refer to a "16-bit byte" because of this parallel transfer, which is visible in the [[UNICODE]] set. I'm not sure, but maybe this should be called a "[[hextet]]".</&><br/> |
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<span style="color: #7f7f7f">But you will notice that I am still correct. Powers of 2 are still magic!</span>}} |
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</ref> |
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<!----> |
|||
<ref name="IEC_Binary"><br/> |
|||
[<br/> |
[<br/> |
||
|*| About bits and bytes: prefixes for binary multiples - IEC<br/> |
|*| About bits and bytes: prefixes for binary multiples - IEC<br/> |
||
|*| v0: https://web.archive.org/web/20090818042050/http://www.iec.ch/online_news/etech/arch_2003/etech_0503/focus.htm<br/> |
|*| v0: https://web.archive.org/web/20090818042050/http://www.iec.ch/online_news/etech/arch_2003/etech_0503/focus.htm<br/> |
||
|*| v1: https://www.iec.ch/prefixes-binary-multiples ] |
|*| v1: https://www.iec.ch/prefixes-binary-multiples ] |
||
</ref> |
</ref> |
||
<!----> |
|||
<ref name="Williams_1969"> |
|||
{{cite book |
|||
|title=British Commercial Computer Digest: Pergamon Computer Data Series |
|||
|first=R. H. |
|||
|last=Williams |
|||
|publisher=[[Pergamon Press]] |
|||
|date=1969-01-01 |
|||
|isbn=1483122107 |
|||
|id=978-1483122106}} |
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</ref> |
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<!----> |
|||
<ref name="Philips_1971"> |
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{{cite web |
|||
|title=Philips Data Systems' product range |
|||
|publisher=[[Philips]] |
|||
|date=April 1971 |
|||
|url=http://www.intact-reunies.nl/pdf/product1971.pdf |
|||
|access-date=2015-08-03 |
|||
|url-status=dead |
|||
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304072023/http://www.intact-reunies.nl/pdf/product1971.pdf |
|||
|archive-date=2016-03-04}} |
|||
</ref> |
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<!----> |
|||
<ref name="Cline_Bytes"> |
|||
{{cite web |
|||
|first=Marshall |
|||
|last=Cline |
|||
|url=https://isocpp.org/wiki/faq/intrinsic-types#very-large-bytes |
|||
|title=I could imagine a machine with 9-bit bytes. But surely not 16-bit bytes or 32-bit bytes, right?}} |
|||
</ref> |
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<!----> |
|||
<ref name="Klein_2008"> |
|||
{{Citation |
|||
|last=Klein |
|||
|first=Jack |
|||
|year=2008 |
|||
|title=Integer Types in C and C++ |
|||
|url=http://home.att.net/~jackklein/c/inttypes.html#char |
|||
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100327225121/http://home.att.net/~jackklein/c/inttypes.html#char |
|||
|archive-date=2010-03-27 |
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|access-date=2015-06-18}} |
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</ref> |
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<!----> |
|||
<ref name="Cline_FAQ"> |
|||
{{cite web |
|||
|first=Marshall |
|||
|last=Cline |
|||
|url=https://isocpp.org/wiki/faq/intrinsic-types#bytes-review |
|||
|title=C++ FAQ: the rules about bytes, chars, and characters}} |
|||
</ref> |
|||
<!----> |
|||
<ref name="NWU"> |
|||
{{cite web |
|||
|publisher=Northwestern University |
|||
|url=http://www.ece.northwestern.edu/local-apps/matlabhelp/techdoc/matlab_external/ch_seri8.html |
|||
|title=External Interfaces/API}} |
|||
</ref> |
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<!----> |
|||
<ref name="CDC_1965_3600"> |
|||
{{cite book |
|||
|title=3600 Computer System - Reference Manual |
|||
|date=1966-10-11 |
|||
|orig-year=1965 |
|||
|version=K |
|||
|publisher=[[Control Data Corporation]] (CDC) |
|||
|location=St. Paul, Minnesota, USA |
|||
|id=60021300 |
|||
|url=http://bitsavers.org/pdf/cdc/3x00/48bit/60021300K_3600_SysRef_Oct66.pdf |
|||
|access-date=2017-04-05 |
|||
|url-status=dead |
|||
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170405154001/http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/cdc/3x00/48bit/60021300K_3600_SysRef_Oct66.pdf |
|||
|archive-date=2017-04-05 |
|||
|quote=Byte - A partition of a computer word.}}<br/> |
|||
NB. Discusses 12-bit, 24-bit and 48-bit bytes. |
|||
</ref> |
|||
<!----> |
|||
<ref name="Dooley_1995_Byte"> |
|||
<ref name="Williams_1969">{{cite book |title=British Commercial Computer Digest: Pergamon Computer Data Series |first=R. H. |last=Williams |publisher=[[Pergamon Press]] |date=1969-01-01 |isbn=1483122107|id=978-1483122106}}</ref> |
|||
{{cite journal |
|||
|title=Byte: The Word |
|||
|first=Louis G. |
|||
|last=Dooley |
|||
|date=February 1995 |
|||
|journal=[[BYTE]] |
|||
|location=Ocala, FL, USA |
|||
|url=http://www.byte.com/art/9502/sec2/art12.htm |
|||
|url-status=dead |
|||
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19961220122258/http://www.byte.com/art/9502/sec2/art12.htm |
|||
|archive-date=1996-12-20 |
|||
|quote=<br/> |
|||
The word byte was coined around 1956 to 1957 at [[MIT Lincoln Laboratory|MIT Lincoln Laboratories]] within a project called [[Experimental SAGE Subsector|SAGE]] (the North American Air Defense System), which was jointly developed by [[Rand Corporation|Rand]], Lincoln Labs, and [[IBM]]. In that era, computer memory structure was already defined in terms of [[word size (computing)|word size]]. A word consisted of x number of [[bit]]s; a bit represented a binary notational position in a word. Operations typically operated on all the bits in the full word.<br/> |
|||
We coined the word byte to refer to a logical set of bits less than a full word size. At that time, it was not defined specifically as x bits but typically referred to as a set of [[Nibble (computing)|4 bits]], as that was the size of most of our coded data items. Shortly afterward, I went on to other responsibilities that removed me from SAGE. After having spent many years in Asia, I returned to the U.S. and was bemused to find out that the word byte was being used in the new microcomputer technology to refer to the basic addressable memory unit.}}<br/> |
|||
NB. According to his son, [[Talk:Byte/Archive_1#Not_%22to_bite%22_but_%22a_bite%22|Dooley wrote to him]]: [<br/> |
|||
https://en.wikipedia.org/?diffonly=1&oldid=29176497&diff=29177140<br/> |
|||
On good days, we would have the [[IBM XD-1|XD-1]] up and running and all the programs doing the right thing, and we then had some time to just sit and talk idly, as we waited for the computer to finish doing its thing. On one such occasion, I coined the word "byte", they ([[Jules Schwartz]] and Dick Beeler) liked it, and we began using it amongst ourselves. The origin of the word was a need for referencing only a part of the word length of the computer, but a part larger than just one bit...Many programs had to access just a specific [[Nibble (computing)|4-bit]] segment of the full word...I wanted a name for this smaller segment of the fuller word. The word "[[bit]]" lead to "[[bite]]" (meaningfully less than the whole), but for a unique spelling, "i" could be "y", and thus the word "byte" was born. ] |
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</ref> |
|||
<!----> |
|||
<ref name="Philips_1971">{{cite web |title=Philips – Philips Data Systems' product range – April 1971 |publisher=[[Philips]] |date=April 1971 |url=http://www.intact-reunies.nl/pdf/product1971.pdf |access-date=2015-08-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304072023/http://www.intact-reunies.nl/pdf/product1971.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-04}}</ref> |
|||
<ref name="Schwartz_Brooks_ACM"> |
|||
<ref name="Cline_Bytes">{{cite web |first=Marshall |last=Cline |url=https://isocpp.org/wiki/faq/intrinsic-types#very-large-bytes |title=I could imagine a machine with 9-bit bytes. But surely not 16-bit bytes or 32-bit bytes, right?}}</ref> |
|||
{{citation |
|||
|title=Origin of the term "byte", 1956 |
|||
|url=http://www.xent.com/FoRK-archive/july99/0646.html |
|||
|access-date=2022-08-17 |
|||
|url-status=live |
|||
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170410125522/http://www.xent.com/FoRK-archive/july99/0646.html |
|||
|archive-date=2017-04-10 |
|||
|quote=<br/> |
|||
A question-and-answer session at an [[ACM conference]] on the history of programming languages included this exchange:<br/> |
|||
<br/> |
|||
[ [[John Goodenough]]:<br/> |
|||
You mentioned that the term "byte" is used in [[JOVIAL]]. Where did the term come from? ]<br/> |
|||
<br/> |
|||
[ [[Jules Schwartz]] (inventor of JOVIAL):<br/> |
|||
As I recall, the [[AN/FSQ-31]], a totally different computer than the [[IBM 709|709]], was byte oriented. I don't recall for sure, but I'm reasonably certain the description of that computer included the word "byte," and we used it. ]<br/> |
|||
<br/> |
|||
[ [[Fred Brooks]]:<br/> |
|||
May I speak to that? [[Werner Buchholz]] coined the word as part of the definition of [[IBM STRETCH|STRETCH]], and the AN/FSQ-31 picked it up from STRETCH, but Werner is very definitely the author of that word. ]<br/> |
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<br/> |
|||
[ Schwartz:<br/> |
|||
That's right. Thank you. ]}} |
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</ref> |
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<!----> |
|||
<ref name="Klein_2008">{{Citation |last=Klein |first=Jack |year=2008 |title=Integer Types in C and C++ |url=http://home.att.net/~jackklein/c/inttypes.html#char |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100327225121/http://home.att.net/~jackklein/c/inttypes.html#char |archive-date=2010-03-27 |access-date=2015-06-18}}</ref> |
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<ref name="Ram_Byte"> |
|||
<ref name="Cline_FAQ">{{cite web |first=Marshall |last=Cline |url=https://isocpp.org/wiki/faq/intrinsic-types#bytes-review |title=C++ FAQ: the rules about bytes, chars, and characters}}</ref> |
|||
{{cite web |
|||
|first=Stefan |
|||
|last=Ram |
|||
|title=Erklärung des Wortes "Byte" im Rahmen der Lehre binärer Codes |
|||
|date=17 January 2003 |
|||
|language=de |
|||
|publisher=[[Freie Universität Berlin]] |
|||
|location=Berlin, Germany |
|||
|url=http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~ram/pub/pub_jf47ht81Ht/code_byte_de |
|||
|access-date=2017-04-10}} |
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</ref> |
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<!----> |
|||
<ref name="NWU">{{cite web |publisher=Northwestern University |url=http://www.ece.northwestern.edu/local-apps/matlabhelp/techdoc/matlab_external/ch_seri8.html |title=External Interfaces/API}}</ref> |
|||
<ref name="ISO_IEC_2382-1_1993"> |
|||
<ref name="CDC_1965_3600">{{cite book |title=3600 Computer System – Reference Manual |date=1966-10-11 |orig-year=1965 |version=K |publisher=[[Control Data Corporation]] (CDC) |location=St. Paul, Minnesota, USA |id=60021300 |url=http://bitsavers.org/pdf/cdc/3x00/48bit/60021300K_3600_SysRef_Oct66.pdf |access-date=2017-04-05 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170405154001/http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/cdc/3x00/48bit/60021300K_3600_SysRef_Oct66.pdf# |archive-date=2017-04-05 |quote=Byte – A partition of a computer word.}} (NB. Discusses 12-bit, 24-bit and 48-bit bytes.)</ref> |
|||
{{cite book |
|||
|title=ISO/IEC 2382-1: 1993, Information technology - Vocabulary - Part 1: Fundamental terms |
|||
|date=1993 |
|||
|quote=<br/> |
|||
byte<br/> |
|||
A string that consists of a number of bits, treated as a unit, and usually representing a character or a part of a character.<br/> |
|||
NOTES<br/> |
|||
1 The number of bits in a byte is fixed for a given data processing system.<br/> |
|||
2 The number of bits in a byte is usually 8.}} |
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</ref> |
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<ref name="Dooley_1995_Byte">{{cite journal |title=Byte: The Word |first=Louis G. |last=Dooley |date=February 1995 |journal=[[BYTE]] |location=Ocala, FL, USA |url=http://www.byte.com/art/9502/sec2/art12.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19961220122258/http://www.byte.com/art/9502/sec2/art12.htm |archive-date=1996-12-20 |quote=<!-- I would like to get the following on record: -->[…] The word byte was coined around 1956 to 1957 at [[MIT Lincoln Laboratory|MIT Lincoln Laboratories]] within a project called [[Experimental SAGE Subsector|SAGE]] (the North American Air Defense System), which was jointly developed by [[Rand Corporation|Rand]], Lincoln Labs, and [[IBM]]. In that era, computer memory structure was already defined in terms of [[word size (computing)|word size]]. A word consisted of x number of [[bit]]s; a bit represented a binary notational position in a word. Operations typically operated on all the bits in the full word.<br />We coined the word byte to refer to a logical set of bits less than a full word size. At that time, it was not defined specifically as x bits but typically referred to as a set of [[Nibble (computing)|4 bits]], as that was the size of most of our coded data items. Shortly afterward, I went on to other responsibilities that removed me from SAGE. After having spent many years in Asia, I returned to the U.S. and was bemused to find out that the word byte was being used in the new microcomputer technology to refer to the basic addressable memory unit.}} (NB. According to his son, Dooley wrote to him:<!-- See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Byte#Not_.22to_bite.22_but_.22a_bite.22 --> "On good days, we would have the [[IBM XD-1|XD-1]] up and running and all the programs doing the right thing, and we then had some time to just sit and talk idly, as we waited for the computer to finish doing its thing. On one such occasion, I coined the word "byte", they ([[Jules Schwartz]] and Dick Beeler) liked it, and we began using it amongst ourselves. The origin of the word was a need for referencing only a part of the word length of the computer, but a part larger than just one bit...Many programs had to access just a specific [[Nibble (computing)|4-bit]] segment of the full word...I wanted a name for this smaller segment of the fuller word. The word "[[bit]]" lead to "[[bite]]" (meaningfully less than the whole), but for a unique spelling, "i" could be "y", and thus the word "byte" was born.")</ref> |
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<ref name="ISO_2382-4"> |
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<ref name="Schwartz_Brooks_ACM">{{citation |title=Origin of the term "byte", 1956 |url=http://www.xent.com/FoRK-archive/july99/0646.html |access-date=2017-04-10 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170410125522/http://www.xent.com/FoRK-archive/july99/0646.html |archive-date=2017-04-10 |quote=A question-and-answer session at an [[ACM conference]] on the history of programming languages included this exchange:<br />[[John Goodenough|JOHN GOODENOUGH]]: You mentioned that the term "byte" is used in [[JOVIAL]]. Where did the term come from?<br />[[Jules Schwartz|JULES SCHWARTZ]] (inventor of JOVIAL): As I recall, the [[AN/FSQ-31]], a totally different computer than the [[IBM 709|709]], was byte oriented. I don't recall for sure, but I'm reasonably certain the description of that computer included the word "byte," and we used it.<br />[[Fred Brooks|FRED BROOKS]]: May I speak to that? [[Werner Buchholz]] coined the word as part of the definition of [[IBM STRETCH|STRETCH]], and the AN/FSQ-31 picked it up from STRETCH, but Werner is very definitely the author of that word.<br />SCHWARTZ: That's right. Thank you.}}</ref> |
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{{cite book |
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|title=ISO 2382-4, Organization of data |
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|edition=2 |
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|quote=byte, octet, 8-bit byte: A string that consists of eight bits.}} |
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</ref> |
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<!----> |
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<ref name="Ram_Byte">{{cite web |first=Stefan |last=Ram |title=Erklärung des Wortes "Byte" im Rahmen der Lehre binärer Codes |date=17 January 2003 |language=de |publisher=[[Freie Universität Berlin]] |location=Berlin, Germany |url=http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~ram/pub/pub_jf47ht81Ht/code_byte_de |access-date=2017-04-10}}</ref> |
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<ref name="Rao_1989"> |
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<ref name="ISO_IEC_2382-1_1993">{{cite book |title=ISO/IEC 2382-1: 1993, Information technology – Vocabulary – Part 1: Fundamental terms |date=1993 |quote=byte<br />A string that consists of a number of bits, treated as a unit, and usually representing a character or a part of a character.<br />NOTES<br />1 The number of bits in a byte is fixed for a given data processing system.<br />2 The number of bits in a byte is usually 8.}}</ref> |
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{{cite book |
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|title=Error-Control Coding for Computer Systems |
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|first1=Thammavaram R. N. |
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|last1=Rao |
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|first2=Eiji |
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|last2=Fujiwara |
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|editor-first=Edward J. |
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|editor-last=McCluskey |
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|series=Prentice Hall Series in Computer Engineering |
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|date=1989 |
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|lccn=88-17892 |
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|edition=1 |
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|isbn=0-13-283953-9 |
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|publisher=[[Prentice Hall]] |
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|location=Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA}}<br/> |
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NB. Example of the usage of a code for "4-bit bytes". |
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</ref> |
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<!----> |
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<ref name="ISO_2382-4">{{cite book |title=ISO 2382-4, Organization of data |edition=2 |quote=byte, octet, 8-bit byte: A string that consists of eight bits.}}</ref> |
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<ref name="Tafel_1971"> |
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<ref name="Rao_1989">{{cite book |title=Error-Control Coding for Computer Systems |first1=Thammavaram R. N. |last1=Rao |first2=Eiji |last2=Fujiwara |editor-first=Edward J. |editor-last=McCluskey |series=Prentice Hall Series in Computer Engineering |date=1989 |lccn=88-17892 |edition=1 |isbn=0-13-283953-9 |publisher=[[Prentice Hall]] |location=Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA}} (NB. Example of the usage of a code for "4-bit bytes".)</ref> |
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{{cite book |
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|title=Einführung in die digitale Datenverarbeitung |
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|language=de |
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|trans-title=Introduction to digital information processing |
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|first=Hans Jörg |
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|last=Tafel |
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|publisher=[[Carl Hanser Verlag]] |
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|date=1971 |
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|location=Munich |
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|isbn=3-446-10569-7 |
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|page=300 |
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|quote=Byte = zusammengehörige Folge von i.a. neun Bits; davon sind acht Datenbits, das neunte ein Prüfbit}}<br/> |
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NB. Defines a byte as a group of typically 9 bits; 8 data bits plus 1 parity bit. |
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</ref> |
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<!----> |
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<ref name="Tafel_1971">{{cite book |title=Einführung in die digitale Datenverarbeitung |language=de |trans-title=Introduction to digital information processing |first=Hans Jörg |last=Tafel |publisher=[[Carl Hanser Verlag]] |date=1971 |location=Munich |isbn=3-446-10569-7 |page=300 |quote=Byte = zusammengehörige Folge von i.a. neun Bits; davon sind acht Datenbits, das neunte ein Prüfbit}} (NB. Defines a byte as a group of typically 9 bits; 8 data bits plus 1 parity bit.)</ref> |
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<ref name="ibm.com"> |
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<ref name="ibm.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSGH4D_16.1.0/com.ibm.xlf161.aix.doc/language_ref/asciit.html|title=List of EBCDIC codes by IBM|website=ibm.com|date=2 January 2020}}</ref> |
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{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSGH4D_16.1.0/com.ibm.xlf161.aix.doc/language_ref/asciit.html |
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|title=List of EBCDIC codes by IBM |
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|website=ibm.com |
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|date=2020-01-02}} |
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</ref> |
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</references> |
</references> |
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==Further reading== |
==Further reading== |