Great post with useful info, but there's a bit more (if you pardon the pun) one can add to it: Eight bits in a byte is a "de facto" standard so it is a "typica

Great post with useful info, but there's a bit more (if you pardon the pun) one can add to it: Eight bits in a byte is a "de facto" standard so it is a "typically" safe assumption on most modern hardware, but the actual definition of how many bits are in a byte is hardware (and situation) dependent. There is no definitive or formal standard that defines how many bits are in a byte. The range is often between 7 to 12 bits per byte, but I think some really ancient systems (1940's - 1950's) were below 7 bits per byte. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte