Byte consists of 7 or 8 bites

pengbinpengbin Member Posts: 5 ■□□□□□□□□□
It is said that "A byet is 7 or 8 bites, depending on whether parity is used" in one book. Can someone explain what is parity and how it afftest the number of bits in a byte? thanks...

Comments

  • binarysoulbinarysoul Member Posts: 993
    Shouldn't it be "A byte is 7 or 8 bits, depending on whether parity is used"??

    Excellent observation icon_lol.gif

    I could be wrong but I believe if parity is used then a byte is 7 bits (but again one bit is parity, so 7+1 is icon_cool.gif, and if not it's 8 bits.

    But a byte is always 8 bits.
  • blargoeblargoe Member Posts: 4,174 ■■■■■■■■■□
    byte is always 8 bits. all 8 of those bits might be data, or maybe only 7 bits of data + 1 parity.
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  • BubbaJBubbaJ Member Posts: 323
    I think a more accurate way of looking at it is how many bits of information are transmitted per byte. A byte is 8 bits, but, in the old days when trasmissions were less reliable and mostly text, 7 bits of data werre transmitted per byte. The parity bit was used to help determine if there were a glitch in the transmission. If the 7 data bits added to an odd number, the parity bit was set to one, and if the data bits added to an even number, the parity bit was set to zero. This was checked on the receiving end, and if it didn't match, the data were known to be corrupt. In those days, text was ASCII which was defined as 7 bits so it worked very well.
  • eurotrasheurotrash Member Posts: 817
    binarysoul wrote:
    (but again one bit is parity, so 7+1 is icon_cool.gif
    Seven plus one equals cool? icon_eek.gif
    OMGZOR!!!!1!!!!!!!1111!1
    witty comment
  • binarysoulbinarysoul Member Posts: 993
    Actually when I typed (7+1 is icon_cool.gif, I mistakenly typed : before ), so it made it a smily face :) One of those funny conicidenes.
  • binarysoulbinarysoul Member Posts: 993
    Ohh I didn't know 8 and ) made smily face. I meant ( 7+1 is 8 )
  • EdTheLadEdTheLad Member Posts: 2,111 ■■■■□□□□□□
    Too funny!!
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  • eurotrasheurotrash Member Posts: 817
    binarysoul wrote:
    Ohh I didn't know 8 and ) made smily face. I meant ( 7+1 is 8 )
    I know. icon_lol.gif
    witty comment
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