SEV question

[Fyron]

MrToxin said:
Technically, a byte runs from 0 to 255.

If you want to be technical... A byte is contiguous sequence of a fixed number of binary digits. The exact size depends on the system in question (generally the smallest addressable word size). Even in C, where a byte is 8 bits, what those bits mean is arbitrary. It might represent integer values from 0 to 255, or it might be values from -128 to 127. Or it might just be a set of 8 boolean values.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

There are, however, 256 possible variations on an 8-bit byte, where a bit has two possible values.

[MrToxin]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
There are, however, 256 possible variations on an 8-bit byte, where a bit has two possible values.

And bytes are based on bits. That's where the 0 to 255 "standard byte" crap comes from.

00000000 translates to 0. 11111111 translates to 255. How a program interprets that is up to the programmer.

Of course, most programs use much, much larger slices of memory for...well, everything anyway so yeah.

Those of you that know what XOR means know what I'm talking about. :V

[narf poit chez BOOM]

I believe I posted a sufficient understanding of that...Fyron.

[Fyron]

11111111 just translates into 8 latches set high, not "255".

[Baron Munchausen]

Fyron said:

If you want to be technical... A byte is contiguous sequence of a fixed number of binary digits. The exact size depends on the system in question (generally the smallest addressable word size). Even in C, where a byte is 8 bits, what those bits mean is arbitrary. It might represent integer values from 0 to 255, or it might be values from -128 to 127. Or it might just be a set of 8 boolean values.

And some of the old computers had very different byte sizes. Anywhere from 4 to 11 bits. For that matter, various current IBM hardware might also have different byte sizes. It's the Intel choice of 8 bits that we are living with in the PC world now.