title: How is more than one bit read at a time?
body: <p>This seems like it should be incredibly easy for me to grasp, but I am going insane trying to understand it. I understand that the computer only understands on or off, so what I am trying to understand is a situation where the computer reads more than one on or off value at a time - as in byte-addressable memory - where it would need to read 8 values of on and off to get the byte value. If the computer reads these 8 values sequentially - one after the other - then that would make sense to me. But from what I gather it reads all of these on and off states at the same time. I assume this is accomplished through the circuit design? Would someone be able to either explain this in simple terms to my simple mind or direct me to a resource that could do so? I would love to not have to be committed to the mental hospital over this - thanks.</p>