What's the difference between a word and byte?

Question

I\'ve done some research. A byte is 8 bits and a word is the smallest unit that can be addressed on memory. The exact length of a word varies. What I don\'t understand is wh

Answer 1

What I don't understand is what's the point of having a byte? Why not say 8 bits?

Apart from the technical point that a byte isn't necessarily 8 bits, the reasons for having a term is simple human nature:

• economy of effort (aka laziness) - it is easier to say "byte" rather than "eight bits"

• tribalism - groups of people like to use jargon / a private language to set them apart from others.

Just go with the flow. You are not going to change 50+ years of accumulated IT terminology and cultural baggage by complaining about it.

---

FWIW - the correct term to use when you mean "8 bits independent of the hardware architecture" is "octet".

Answer 2

In fact, in common usage, word has become synonymous with 16 bits, much like byte has with 8 bits. Can get a little confusing since the "word size" on a 32-bit CPU is 32-bits, but when talking about a word of data, one would mean 16-bits. Microcontrollers with a 32-bit word size have taken to calling their instructions "longs" (supposedly to try and avoid the word/doubleword confusion).