The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
An octet is a storage unit that is always composed of a sequence of exactly eight bits. A bit (a contraction of binary digit) is the smallest piece of information (or unit of data) used by a computer. A bit possesses a binary value, either zero (0) or one (1). By general definition of the binary numbering system, an octet ranges in mathematical value from zero (00000000) to 255 (11111111) because 2 to the power of 8 (28) produces 256 different combinations (or possibilities). Nearly all computers are designed to store data and execute instructions in multiples (or strings) of bits. A byte is formed from strings of bits, and is a unit of data that can represent information such as single characters, numerals, etc. An octet is a byte of eight bits. The smallest value of an octet is "00000000" (zero), and the largest value is "11111111" (255 in decimal notation). Although bytes are most often eight-bit strings, they are not required to be of that particular size. For instance, a byte may be a sequence of 9 bits on some 36-bit computers. Octet, on the other hand, is always designated as an eight-bit unit. For instance, four eight-bit octets form a 32-bit word.
The term octet is normally used in networking, in preference to the term byte, because, as said earlier, some systems use the term byte for units that are not eight bits long. Historically, the octet was applied to eight bits when some computer systems began to represent a byte as a size other than eight bits. Today bytes usually range in size from four to ten bits, but octets always consist of eight bits. The term octet is derived from the Latin word "octo" that means "eight."