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
Packed pixel Packed pixel In packed pixel or chunky framebuffer organization, the bits defining each pixel are grouped together. For example, if there are 16 bits per pixel, each pixel is represented in two consecutive (contiguous) 8-bit bytes in the framebuffer (a.k.a. screen buffer). If there are 4 bits per pixel (16 colors), each frame buffer byte defines two pixels, one in each nibble. The latter example is as opposed to storing perhaps half of the bits—2 bits—for each of four pixels in one byte and the other two bits for each of those four pixels in another byte or bytes. It