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A nibble (or less commonly, nybble) is the computing term for the aggregation of four bits, or half an octet (an octet being an 8-bit byte). As a nibble contains four bits, there are sixteen (24) possible values, so a nibble corresponds to a single hexadecimal digit (thus, it is often referred to as a "hex digit" or "hexit"). A full byte is represented by two hexadecimal digits; therefore, it is common to display a byte of information as two nibbles. The nibble is often called a "semioctet" or a "quartet" in a networking or telecommunication context. Originally, the word computing was synonymous with counting and calculating, and a science and technology that deals with the original sense of computing mathematical calculations. ...
This article is about the unit of information. ...
In computer technology and networking, an octet is a group of 8 bits. ...
8-bit refers to the number of bits used in the data bus of a computer. ...
A byte is commonly used as a unit of storage measurement in computers, regardless of the type of data being stored. ...
In mathematics and computer science, base-16, hexadecimal, or simply hex, is a numeral system with a radix or base of 16, usually written using the symbols 0–9 and A–F or a–f. ...
In mathematics, hexadecimal or simply hex is a numeral system with a radix or base of 16 usually written using the symbols 0–9 and A–F or a–f. ...
Blue RJ-45 patchcord of the type commonly used to connect network devices. ...
Copy of the original phone of Graham Bell at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris Telecommunication is the transmission of signals over a distance for the purpose of communication. ...
The term "nibble" originates from the fact that the term "byte" is a pun on the English word "bite". A nibble is a small bite, which in this context is humorously construed as "half a bite". The alternative "nybble" spelling parallels the spelling of "byte". It has been suggested that dajare be merged into this article or section. ...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
The nibble is used to describe the amount of memory used to store a digit of a number stored in packed decimal format within an IBM mainframe. This technique is used to reduce space requirements, make computations faster, and make debugging easier. An 8-bit byte is split in half and each nibble is used to store one digit. The last nibble of the variable is reserved for the sign. Thus a variable which can store up to nine digits would be 'packed' into five bytes. Ease of debugging resulted from the numbers being readable in a hex dump where two hex numbers are used to represent the value of a byte, as 16×16 = 28. In computing and electronic systems, Binary-coded decimal (BCD) is an encoding for decimal numbers in which each digit is represented by its own binary sequence. ...
A hexdump of a binary executable file. ...
In mathematics, hexadecimal or simply hex is a numeral system with a radix or base of 16 usually written using the symbols 0–9 and A–F or a–f. ...
Historically, there have been cases where the term "nybble" was used for a set of bits fewer than 8, but not necessarily 4. In the Apple II microcomputer line, much of the disk drive control was implemented in software. Writing data to a disk was done by converting 256-byte pages into sets of 5-bit or, later, 6-bit nybbles; loading data from the disk required the reverse. Note that the term byte also had this ambiguity; at one time, byte meant a set of bits but not necessarily 8. Today, the terms "byte" and "nibble" ("nybble") generally refer to 8- and 4-bit collections, respectively, and are not often used for other sizes. The 1977 Apple II, complete with integrated keyboard, color graphics, sound, a plastic case and eight expansion slots. ...
In some languages, a nibble is called a tetrade, from greek tetra 'four'. This usage reflects the number of bits - 4 - in half a byte (considering 1 byte = 8 bits).
See also
The binary numeral system (base 2 numerals) represents numeric values using two symbols, typically 0 and 1. ...
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