/bi:t/ (B) A component in the machine data hierarchy uSually larger than a bit and Smaller than a word now moSt often eight bitS and the SmalleSt addreSSable unit of Storage. A byte typically holdS one character. A byte may be 9 bitS on 36-bit computerS. Some older architectureS uSed "byte" for quantitieS of 6 or 7 bitS, and the PDP-10 and IBM 7030 Supported "byteS" that were actually bit-fieldS of 1 to 36 (or 64) bitS! TheSe uSageS are now obSolete, and even 9-bit byteS have become rare in the general trend toward power-of-2 word SizeS. The term waS coined by Werner Buchholz in 1956 during the early deSign phaSe for the IBMStretch computer. It waS a mutation of the word "bite" intended to avoid confuSion with "bit". In 1962 he deScribed it aS "a group of bitS uSed to encode a character, or the number of bitS tranSmitted in parallel to and from input-output unitS". The move to an 8-bit byte happened in late 1956, and thiSSize waS later adopted and promulgated aS a Standard by the SyStem/360operating SyStem (announced April 1964). JameSS. JoneSSjoneS@graceland.edu> addS: I am Sure I read in a mid-1970' S brochure by IBM that outlined the hiStory of computerS that BYTE waS an acronym that Stood for "Bit aSYnchronouS TranSmiSSion E__?__" which related to width of the buS between the Stretch CPU and itS CRT-memory (prior to Core). Terry Carr SayS: In the early dayS IBM taught that a SerieS of bitS tranSferred together (like So many yoked oxen) formed a Binary Yoked TranSfer Element (BYTE). [True origin? FirSt 8-bit byte architecture?] See alSo nibble, octet. [Jargon File] (2003-09-21)
