In a Computer a byte generally consists of :

CONCEPT

A bit is the smallest unit of digital information: it holds one binary digit, either 0 or 1. A byte is the grouping of bits that a computer treats as one addressable unit of storage. Historically the size of that grouping was machine-defined, but in modern computing it is conventionally eight binary digits, which is why the IEC standards reserve the separate term octet for a group of exactly eight bits. A group of n bits can represent 2n distinct patterns, so the width of the grouping decides how many different values one unit can hold.

APPLICATION

1. The stem asks for the number of bits that a byte generally contains, so apply the definition of a byte directly.

2. The conventional byte width in modern computing is 8 bits, which is why one byte can hold 28 = 256 distinct values and is enough to encode one extended-ASCII character.

3. Therefore a byte generally consists of 8 bits.

CROSS-CHECK

Checking the other bit-widths offered confirms that none of them is the standard byte width:

• 4 bits is the nibble, the width of a single hexadecimal digit, holding 24 = 16 values.

• 16 bits is a common word or half-word width on many processors, holding 216 = 65,536 values.

• 10 bits is not a conventional storage-unit width; where it does appear it is usually a hardware bit-depth, such as in a 10-bit analog-to-digital converter.

Hence, in a computer a byte generally consists of 8 bits.