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
Byte (magazine) reminiscent of the Keystone Cops, "Byte" magazine finally has moved into separate offices of its own." Wayne Green was not happy about losing "Byte" magazine so he was going to start a new one called "Kilobyte". "Byte" quickly trademarked KILOBYTE as a cartoon series in "Byte" magazine. The new magazine was called "Kilobaud". There was competition and animosity between Byte Publications and 73 Inc. but both remained in the small town of Peterborough, New Hampshire. Articles in the first issue (September, 1975) included "Which Microprocessor For You?" by Hal Chamberlin, "Write Your Own Assembler" by Dan Fylstra and "Serial Interface"