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Units of computing data: Difference between revisions
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{{wikipedia|Units of information}}
Computing data is referred to in a variety of different units, most derived from the byte unit.
==Bits==
A '''bit''' is a state of either "on" or "off". It is the smallest possible unit of data on any computer.
==Bytes==
{{wikipedia|byte}}
The term '''byte''' represents an ordered collection of bits, with each bit representing a binary value of either 0 or 1. In most modern hardware, the defined size of a byte is eight bits, hence usually there are 2^8 (or 256) distinct values in one byte.
In the Pokémon games, the smallest groups of [[identifiers]] can only be read by the console in single 8-bit bytes. This explains, for example, the reason why there are 105 glitch Pokémon in Generation I
Bytes are also sometimes read as arrays of bits, in other words an ordered list of eight "ons" and "offs", for instance when storing badges obtained in {{RBY}}.
==Words==
The size of a '''word''' depends on the type of hardware. On 32-bit processors, such as that of the Game Boy Advance, the size of a word is four bytes. A unit of two bytes in this architecture is referred to as a '''halfword''', and a unit of eight a '''double word''' or '''dword'''.
[[Category:Terminology]]
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