Information AboutNibble |
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A nibble (or less commonly, '''nybble''') is the Computing term for the aggregation of four Bit s, or half an Octet (an octet being an 8-bit Byte ). As a nibble contains four bits, there are sixteen (24) possible values, so a nibble corresponds to a single Hexadecimal digit (thus, it is often referred to as a " Hex Digit " or "hexit"). A full byte is represented by two hexadecimal digits; therefore, it is common to display a byte of information as two nibbles. A set of three nibbles can be referred to as a tribble. The nibble is often called a "semioctet" or a "quartet" in a Networking or Telecommunication context. The term "nibble" originates from the fact that the term "byte" is a Pun on the English word "bite". A nibble is a small bite, which in this context is humourously construed as "half a bite". The alternative "nybble" spelling parallels the spelling of "byte". Historically, there have been cases where the term "nybble" was used for a set of bits fewer than 8, but not necessarily 4. In the Apple II Microcomputer Line , much of the disk drive control was implemented in software. Writing data to a disk was done by converting 256-byte pages into sets of 5-bit or, later, 6-bit nybbles; loading data from the disk required the reverse. Note that the term ''byte'' also had this ambiguity; at one time, ''byte'' meant a set of bits but not necessarily 8. Today, the terms "byte" and "nibble" ("nybble") generally refer to 8- and 4-bit collections, respectively, and are not often used for other sizes. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS |