Byte addressing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Byte addressing refers to hardware architectures which support accessing individual bytes of data rather than only larger units called words.
The basic unit of digital storage is called a bit. In most common computer architectures, 8 bits are grouped together to form a byte. Byte addressable memory refers to architectures where data can be accessed 8 bits at a time, irrespective of the width of the data and address buses.
Many common architectures can address more than 8 bits of data at a time. For example, the Intel 386SX processor can handle 16-bit (two-byte) data, since data is transferred over a 16-bit bus. However, data in memory may be of various lengths. A 64-bit architecture machine might still need to access byte-sized data over its 64-bit address line. Such memory, which is accessible in 8-bit segments, is called Byte-Addressable Memory.
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2007) |
 |
This computer hardware-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
