Before all I apologize for my english.
Garry Hamilton ha scritto:
> You know, I was going to stay out of this one ...
>
> It is true that one (1) bit is the smallest
> discreet unit of data.
>
> Also that 4 bits are a Nibble,
> also that 8 bits are a Byte.
>
> These are truths on every processor I've worked
> on. (Some bus circuitry requires a ninth parity
> bit, but that's not part of the data.)
That's not correct, from my view point of course, parity bit is part of
the data, in fact we use it to know if data itselft is corrupt.
> When we get to the WORD, things begin to get
> a little fuzzy. On some processors, a BYTE and
> a WORD are the same.
Mmmm I think that a byte is defined as 8 bit, a word as 16 bits and so...
> On contemporary Intel processors, a WORD is 2
> BYTES. On higher end CPUs a WORD can be 32 or
> even 64 bits. It depends on the CPUs "natural"
> data unit size, based on its register width.
I can't share your point of view, a WORD is defined as 16 bits, then 32
bit is not a word. CPU natural data unit size is different topic. Each
processor can manage data of different size, anyway on a C-compiler in
which we have 16 bits char types don't means byte=16 bits, it means that
on this compiler the char type (not byte) is 16 bits long.
> Having said all that, I still teach my students
> that:
> 1 = BIT
> 4 = NIBBLE
> 8 = BYTE
> 16 = WORD
> 32 = DOUBLE WORD
> 64 = QUAD WORD
I disagree : ( ---> (but I always add the "CPU-dependent" disclaimer).
> With a little more personal restraint I might have
> stayed out of this one, but THE VOICES MADE ME!
>
> Trust The Source,
> Garry
> ---------------------
> >
> > Really?!? What are Word and DWord ?
> >
> > I know that:
> > 4 bits are called NIBBLE
> > 8 bits are called BYTE
> > 16 " " " WORD
> > 32 " " " DOUBLE WORD
> >
> > 1 bit is the unit of information and not byte.
> >
To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message.
Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies.
