3 ms·
If the CPU is nibble-oriented, wouldn't that mean that that is its byte size?
by wewtyflakes 5mo ago
If the CPU is nibble-oriented, wouldn't that mean that that is its byte size?
- hvs 5mo agoA byte is always 8 bits. The word you're looking for is `word-size` which, in this case would be 4 bits.
- jlokier 5mo agoA byte is not always 8 bits on old machines, though it is standardised as 8 bits nowadays. This is why network RFCs talk of "octets", to avoid the ambiguity. Octets are always 8 bits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octet_(computing) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octet_(computing)
- duped 5mo agoThe definition of a byte today is different than the definition of byte when those machines were manufactured. Just like how 'foot' is now standardized(*) (* technically, a 'foot' is not a standard unit of measure but that's due to the long history of 'foot' not being standardized until relatively recently)
- fc417fc802 5mo agoNo. 8 bit bytes are the de facto standard but that is in no way official nor the definition of the word. You can find modern niche projects with non-8-bit bytes (and by extension non-32 or 64 bit words).
- djmips 5mo agoI didn't realize that there was a 16 bit name called a 'chomp' haha. But more formally hextet.
- quantified 5mo agoI think you might be missing the attempt at humor.
- fc417fc802 5mo agoThat is false. A byte is the base grouping and a word is the native size for a given operation. Some architectures even expose multiple word sizes. (TBF the entire concept can be quite fuzzy depending on the implementation.)
- joemi 5mo agoAre you trying to make a pun with byte/bite relating to nibble? Because that's actually where the term nibble (referring to 4 bits) comes from, so I'm not sure such a pun even counts as a pun anymore. Or am I misinterpreting your comment?
- robinsonb5 5mo agoWhen did we stop spelling it "nybble"?
- quantified 5mo agoI was wondering this as well. Probably when a new wave of people discovered the concept in the absence of the older wave? By contrast, "byte" has been in use continuously and widely.
- zamadatix 5mo ago"Nibble" may well have always been in use by folks, and nybble may have actually come later. At the very least, references to each spelling being in use exist for the last ~60 years. The first book match I get for "nibble" near "byte" is in the 1964 "System 360 Assembler Language" by Don H. Stabley uses nibble. The earliest match I can find for "nybble" in relation to computers was the 1968 "Encyclopedia of library and information science". Nybble (and likely nibble) itself doesn't seem to have taken off until around the mid 1970s https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=nybble&year_start=1950&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=0&case_insensitive=false https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=nybble&year_st... References to the coining of the term in 1958 of course don't provide a textual source.
- wewtyflakes 5mo agoI was not making a pun, though the terms of art in that area were clearly made to be puns. I was pointing out that the byte-size of a CPU is typically defined as its smallest addressable unit, so, I was confused to see a CPU using an architecture that works with half of that size; it does not make sense to me.
- VerifiedReports 5mo agoIt's actually "nybble."