Byte Byte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits, representing a binary number. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit of memory in many computer architectures. The size of the byte has historically been hardware dependent and no definitive standards existed that mandated the size – byte-sizes from 1 to 48 bits are known to have been used in the past. Early character encoding systems often used six bits, and machines
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