Nibble
The nibble (seldom also Nybble or Nyble ) is a data volume that in today's parlance comprises 4 bits ; it is also called a nibble . However, just as a byte traditionally did not always correspond to 8 bits, the term nibble was occasionally used for various subsets of a byte other than 4 bits.
In contrast, in the telecommunications and network industries, the terms semi- octet ( semi-octet ), quadbit or quartet ( quartet ) are more common and always refer to exactly 4 bits.
The terms tetrad and quadruple , which used to be common in Western Europe, are no longer used with this meaning.
The term nibble is based on the English verb to nibble ("nibble", "take a small bite") and the phonetic similarity of bite ("bite", "bite") and byte . The play on words "to nibble = to take half a bite" apparently originated around 1958 in a joking remark made by David B. Benson, a later professor at Washington State University , to his mother, who was a programmer at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory .
The sixteen values of the nibble cover the value range from 0 ( binary 0000 ) to 15 (binary 1111 ) and can be designated with hexadecimal digits from 0 hex to F hex .
This is also the reason for the "repudiation" of the octal system with the digits 0 oct to 7 oct (for three binary digits each) - the front and back nibbles were e.g. B. not immediately recognizable as such due to the octal number representation despite identity:
- 273 oct = 10111011 bin = BB hex (= 187 dec ).
The 16 possible values for a nibble are:
| 0 hex | = | 0 dec | = | 0 oct | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 1 hex | = | 1 dec | = | 1 oct | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||
| 2 hex | = | 2 dec | = | 2 oct | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||
| 3 hex | = | 3 dec | = | 3 oct | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 4 hex | = | 4 dec | = | 4 oct | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 5 hex | = | 5 dec | = | 5 oct | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||
| 6 hex | = | 6 dec | = | 6 oct | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||
| 7 hex | = | 7 dec | = | 7 oct | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 8 hex | = | 8 dec | = | 10 oct | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 9 hex | = | 9 dec | = | 11 oct | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||
| A hex | = | 10 dec | = | 12 oct | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||
| B hex | = | 11 dec | = | 13 oct | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||
| C hex | = | 12 dec | = | 14 oct | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||
| D hex | = | 13 dec | = | 15 oct | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||
| E hex | = | 14 dec | = | 16 oct | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||
| F hex | = | 15 dec | = | 17 oct | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
Half a nibble is also Crumb (Engl. For crumbs ) called. A crumb therefore comprises two bits. This designation is rarely used because bits are seldom represented in blocks of two.
Analogous to the term tetrad for 4 bits, the following terms were also used earlier:
- Triad for a group of 3 bits
- Pentad for 5 bits
- Hexad for 6 bits
- Heptade for 7 bits and
- Octade for 8 bits (1 byte).
See also
Web links
- Jargon File (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eric S. Raymond: The New Hacker's Dictionary . MIT Press, 1996, ISBN 978-0-262-68092-9 , pp. 333 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Joseph Puzman, Boris Kubin: Public Data Networks: From Separate PDNs to the ISDN . Springer, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4471-1737-7 , pp. 113 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ Ray Horak: Webster's New World Telecom Dictionary . John Wiley & Sons, 2007, ISBN 978-0-470-22571-4 , pp. 402 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Ronald L. Brewster: Data Communications and Networks, Vol. III . In: IEE telecommunications series . tape 31 . Institution of Electrical Engineers, 1994, ISBN 978-0-85296-804-8 , pp. 155 ( limited preview in Google Book Search): "A data symbol represents one quartet (4 bits) of binary data."
- ↑ John W. Carr: Introduction to the use of digital computers: Notes from the Summer Conference Held at the Computation Center of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, August 17-28, 1959 . In: Frontier Research on Digital Computers . tape 1 . University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Computation Center, S. 211 : "Each of these letters corresponds to one of the integers from zero to fifteen, therefore requiring 4 bits (one" tetrade ") in binary representation."
- ↑ a b c d Ambrosius Paul Speiser : Digital Computing Systems - Basics / Circuit Technology / Working Method / Operational Safety , 2nd edition, Springer-Verlag / IBM , ETH Zurich 1965 (1961), pp. 6, 34, 165, 183, 208, 213 , 215. LCCN 65-14624, ID 0978.
- ↑ Eric. W. Weisstein: Crumb . MathWorld. Retrieved August 2, 2015.
- ^ Reinhold Paul: Electrical engineering and electronics for computer scientists - basic areas of electronics . tape 2 . BG Teubner Stuttgart / Springer, 2013, ISBN 3-322-96652-6 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
- ^ Gert Böhme, Werner Born, B. Wagner, G. Schwarze: Programming of process computers . In: Jürgen Reichenbach (Ed.): Series automation technology . tape 79 . VEB Verlag Technik Berlin, reprint: Springer Verlag, 1969 ( limited preview in Google book search [accessed on July 2, 2013]).
- ^ Philips - Philips Data Systems' product range - April 1971 . Philips. 1971. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 3, 2015.
- ^ RH Williams: British Commercial Computer Digest: Pergamon Computer Data Series . Pergamon Press, 1969, ISBN 1-4831-2210-7 .
