Byte explicitly denotes a sequence of eight bits, eliminating the ambiguity of the byte. The term "byte" was coined by Werner Buchholz in June 1956, during the early design phase for the IBM Stretch computer, which had addressing to the bit and variable field length (VFL) instructions with a byte size encoded in the instruction. It is a deliberate respelling of "bite" to avoid accidental mutation to "bit". Another origin of "byte" for bit groups smaller than a machine's word size (and in particular groups of four bits) is on record by Louis G. Dooley, who claimed he coined the term
Stochastic computing bit operation that can compute this function; the usual solution involves producing correlated output bits, which, as we have seen above, can cause a host of problems. Other functions (such as the averaging operator formula_25) require either stream decimation or inflation. Tradeoffs between precision and memory can be challenging. Although stochastic computing has a number of defects when considered as a method of general computation, there are certain applications that highlight its strengths. One notable case occurs in the decoding of certain error correcting codes. In developments unrelated to stochastic computing, highly effective methods of decoding LDPC codes using the