Octet (computing) Octet (computing) The octet is a unit of digital information in computing and telecommunications that consists of eight bits. The term is often used when the term byte might be ambiguous, as the byte has historically been used for storage units of a variety of sizes. The term "octad(e)" for eight bits is no longer common. A variable-length sequence of octets, as in Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1), is referred to as an octet string. The international standard IEC 60027-2, chapter 3.8.2, states that a byte is an octet of bits. However, the unit byte has historically been platform-dependent and
Byte addressing be achieved in one instruction: store this character code at that byte address. Text programs are easier to write, smaller, and run faster. The advantage of word addressing is that more memory can be addressed in the same number of bits. The IBM 7094 has 15-bit addresses, so could address 32,768 words of 36 bits. The machines were often built with a full complement of addressable memory. Addressing 32,768 bytes of 6 bits would have been much less useful for scientific and engineering users. Or consider the 32-bit Pentium processor. Its 32-bit address bus can address 4 billion different items.