Someone asked me if I knew what the word was as it applied to computers. At first I thought maybe he meant nibble but hey insisted it was dibble. He just know got back to me with the answer
8 bits = byte
4 bits = nibble
2 bits = dibble

Has anyone else heard of a dibble?

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I seem to remember Officer Dibble had it out for Top Cat at one time.

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names for bits other than what made up a byte weren't necessary for the a+. it seems unlikely that they would be important for any other exam imho.

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Yeah I already put that word in my "useless and will never use file". But I just never heard of it. I remember the word nibble from way back when I tried learning asm but never heard of dibble. I was just wondering if anyone else ever heard of it.

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weird word
never heard of it

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I have heard that two binary bits are called a 'dibit', when referring to the two binary bits being converted to one hexadecimal character. Maybe they are the same thing.

Hippo

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I agree with Hippo, I have seen dibit used extensively however dibble was slang from the original world of white hat hackerdom. Try the internet jargon file, it may still be there.

p.s. when you get done working on that blonde do you get the title CBATCIE
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yes you are right (Certified Blonde Around The Corner Internetworking Expert

Last edited by azimuth40 on 12-07-02 at 12:13 AM

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I worked in a wholesale greenhouse for a few years, and the tool we used to poke holes in the soil to plant the baby "plugs" was called a dibble. It was about 3/4" diameter and pointed on one end.
Of course, I liked calling it a swizzle instead.

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I've never heard of the term dibble either although I have heard the terms crumb and morsel used for 2 bits and nibble used for 4 bits.

nybble /nib'l/ (alt. `nibble') n.

[from v. `nibble' by analogy with `bite' => `byte'] Four bits; one hex digit; a half-byte. Though `byte' is now techspeak, this useful relative is still jargon. Compare byte; see also bit. The more mundane spelling "nibble" is also commonly used. Apparently the `nybble' spelling is uncommon in Commonwealth Hackish, as British orthography would suggest the pronunciation /ni:'bl/.

Following `bit', `byte' and `nybble' there have been quite a few analogical attempts to construct unambiguous terms for bit blocks of other sizes. All of these are strictly jargon, not techspeak, and not very common jargon at that (most hackers would recognize them in context but not use them spontaneously). We collect them here for reference together with the ambiguous techspeak terms `word', `half-word', `double word', and `quad' or `quad word'; some (indicated) have substantial information separate entries.

2 bits:
crumb, quad, quarter, tayste, tydbit, morsel
4 bits:
nybble
5 bits:
nickle
10 bits:
deckle
16 bits:
playte, chawmp (on a 32-bit machine), word (on a 16-bit machine), half-word (on a 32-bit machine).
18 bits:
chawmp (on a 36-bit machine), half-word (on a 36-bit machine)
32 bits:
dynner, gawble (on a 32-bit machine), word (on a 32-bit machine), longword (on a 16-bit machine).
36 bits:
word (on a 36-bit machine)
48 bits:
gawble (under circumstances that remain obscure)
64 bits:
double word (on a 32-bit machine) quad (on a 16-bit machine)
128 bits:
quad (on a 32-bit machine)
The fundamental motivation for most of these jargon terms (aside from the normal hackerly enjoyment of punning wordplay) is the extreme ambiguity of the term `word' and its derivatives.

http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/jargon.html

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