Difference between revisions of "Octet"
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| − | An '''octet''' is an 8-[[bit]] unit of data. Although the term [[byte]] is now basically a synonym, a separate term was needed in the early days of work on the [[TCP/IP]] [[protocol suite]], because in the earlier [[Network Control Program|NCP]] protocol suite of the [[ARPANET]], 'bytes' of variable length were supported. (That was as a result of the prevalence of machines such as [[PDP-10]], whose [[instruction set architecture|ISA]] directly supported variable-length bytes.) | + | An '''octet''' is an 8-[[bit]] unit of data. Although the term [[byte]] is now basically a synonym, a separate term was needed in the early days of work on the [[TCP/IP]] [[protocol suite]], because in the earlier [[Network Control Program (ARPANET)|NCP]] protocol suite of the [[ARPANET]], 'bytes' of variable length were supported. (That was as a result of the prevalence of machines such as [[PDP-10]], whose [[instruction set architecture|ISA]] directly supported variable-length bytes.) |
[[Category: Basics]] | [[Category: Basics]] | ||
Revision as of 23:31, 4 June 2022
An octet is an 8-bit unit of data. Although the term byte is now basically a synonym, a separate term was needed in the early days of work on the TCP/IP protocol suite, because in the earlier NCP protocol suite of the ARPANET, 'bytes' of variable length were supported. (That was as a result of the prevalence of machines such as PDP-10, whose ISA directly supported variable-length bytes.)
