Re: Bit and Byte etc.

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

From: Alex Nichol (alexn.mvpdts_at_ntlworld.delete.com)
Date: 04/01/04 

Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 16:34:14 +0100

"Jim Macklin" <p51mustang[threeX12]@xxxhotmail.calm> wrote:

>A nibble was important when modem were slow and you needed a
>useful chunk of data.

And went with the dup of coffee you got while waiting

It was used where mainframes used 'packed decimal' format for business
programs; two decimal digits encoded each in one nibble of a byte.

IMHO the byte as an addressing unit is the one really original
contribution IBM made in computer design 

-- 
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K.  Alexn@mvps.D8E8L.org (remove the D8 bit)

Relevant Pages

  • The Ol Curmudgeon, part 2
    ... you have any idea that today's mainframes can run all the classic applications _and_ you can run UNIX on the mainframe at the same time? ... How many of the younger workers do you see who understand any business, ... Everyone is regularly updated / trained on all the technologies being used in the business. ...
    (bit.listserv.ibm-main)
  • Re: MS Outlook 2007 Contact Problem
    ... I loaded MS Small Business 2007 from DVD. ... don't recall being asked to format the "Full Name" Field. ... I have no idea from the Help screens how to format the Full Name field. ... Contacts to display proper order of first and last name in the "Full Name" ...
    (microsoft.public.outlook.contacts)
  • Re: Data offload to DVDs or external drives
    ... to ask at this point is "What business problemare you trying to solve?" ... What programs interpret and process the data today? ... The central design premise of mainframes is "avoid breaking ... cloud) archiving, because that's what businesses need to ...
    (bit.listserv.ibm-main)
  • Creating a Flexible Proposal Form
    ... I'm redesigning forms for our small business, ... The basic format would be a number ... Yes, I know you can put a spreadsheet into Word, ... may make sense to put it in Excel. ...
    (microsoft.public.excel.misc)
  • Re: Different results: Networkdays versus date subtraction
    ... Try this, it works with UK date format as shown below, if you want US format ... In cell B1 enter the second date also in dd/mm/yyyy format ... if you have more or less business holidays than ... networkdays is not the number of working days between 2 dates ...
    (microsoft.public.excel.worksheet.functions)