Part of the Computing fundamentals glossary:

In computers, an octet (from the Latin octo or "eight") is a sequence of eight bit s. An octet is thus an eight-bit byte . Since a byte is not eight bits in all computer systems, octet provides a nonambiguous term.

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This term should not be confused with octal , a term that describes a base-8 number system.

This was last updated in April 2005
Posted by: Margaret Rouse

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