Electrical Engineers and Master Electricians (EEAME) Portal
Home
Dictionary
Tutorials
General
Specifications
Disclaimer
Devices
Dictionary of Electrical Engineering
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
ALL
Commonly used terms in the Electrical industry.
byte
in most computers, the unit of memory addressing and the smallest quantity directly manipulated by instructions. The term "byte" is of doubtful origin, but was used in some early computers to denote any field within a word (e.g., DEC PDP-10). Since its use on the IBM "Stretch" computer (IBM 7030) and especially the IBM System/360 in the early 1960s, a byte is now generally understood to be 8 bits, although 7 bits is also a possibility.