8 - bit - wikipedia 8 - bit This article is about computer architecture. For other uses, see 8 - bit ( disambiguation ). This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. ( Learn how and when to remove these template messages ) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( October 2009 ) This article relies too much on references to primary sources. Please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources. ( August 2012 ) Bit 8 12 16 18 24 26 31 32 36 48 60 64 128 256 512 Application 8 16 32 64 Binary floating point precision 16 32 40 64 80 128 256 × 1⁄2 × 1 × 2 × 4 × 8 Decimal floating point precision 32 64 128 In computer architecture, 8 - bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 8 bits ( 1 octet ) wide. Also, 8 - bit CPU and ALU architectures are those that are based on registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. 8 - bit is also a generation of microcomputers in which 8 - bit microprocessors were the norm. The IBM System / 360 introduced byte - addressable memory with 8 - bit bytes, as opposed to bit - addressable or decimal digit - addressable or word - addressable memory, although its general purpose registers were 32 bits wide, and addresses were contained in the lower 24 bits of those addresses. Different models of System / 360 had different internal data path widths ; the IBM System / 360 Model 30 ( 1965 ) implemented the 32 - bit System / 360 architecture, but had an 8 bit native path width, and performed 32 - bit arithmetic 8 bits at a time. The first widely adopted 8 - bit microprocessor was the Intel 8080, being used in many hobbyist computers of the late 1970s and early 1980s, often running the CP / M operating system ; it had 8 - bit data words and 16 - bit addresses. The Zilog Z80 ( compatible with the 8080 ) and the Motorola 6800 were also used in similar computers. The Z80 and the MOS Technology 6502 8 - bit CPUs were widely used in home computers and second - and third - generation game consoles of the 1970s and 1980s. Many 8 - bit CPUs or microcontrollers are the basis of today 's ubiquitous embedded systems. Contents 1 Details 2 Notable 8 - bit CPUs 3 See also 4 References Details There are 2 ( 256 ) different possible values for 8 bits. When unsigned, it has possible values ranging from 0 to 255, when signed, it has - 128 to 127. Eight - bit CPUs use an 8 - bit data bus and can therefore access 8 bits of data in a single machine instruction. The address bus is typically a double octet wide ( i.e. 16 - bit ), due to practical and economical considerations. This implies a direct address space of only 64 kB on most 8 - bit processors. Notable 8 - bit CPUs The first commercial 8 - bit processor was the Intel 8008 ( 1972 ) which was originally intended for the Datapoint 2200 intelligent terminal. Most competitors to Intel started off with such character oriented 8 - bit microprocessors. Modernized variants of these 8 - bit machines are still one of the most common types of processor in embedded systems. Another notable 8 - bit CPU is the MOS Technology 6502 ; it, and variants of it, were used in a number of personal computers such as the Apple I and Apple II, the Atari 8 - bit family, the BBC Micro, and the Commodore PET and Commodore VIC - 20, and in a number of video game consoles such as the Atari 2600 and the Nintendo Entertainment System. Early or popular 8 - bit processors ( incomplete ) Manufacturer Processor Year Intel 8008 1972 Datapoint 2200 compatible Signetics 2650 1973 Intel 8080 8008 source compatible Motorola 6800 Fairchild F8 MOS 6502 Similar to 6800, but incompatible Microchip PIC Harvard architecture microcontroller RCA 1802 1976 Zilog Z80 1976 8080 binary compatible Intel 8085 1977 8080 binary compatible Motorola 6809 1978 6800 source compatible Zilog Z8 1978 Harvard architecture microcontroller Intel 8051 1980 Harvard architecture microcontroller MOS 6510 1982 Enhanced 6502 custom - made for use in the Commodore 64 Ricoh 2A03 1982 6502 clone minus BCD instructions for the Nintendo Entertainment System Zilog Z180 1985 Z80 binary compatible Motorola 68HC11 1985 Atmel AVR Zilog EZ80 1999 Z80 binary compatible Infineon XC800 2005 Freescale 68HC08 Hudson HuC6280 Motorola 6803 NEC 78K0 See also Vasm, a free assembler References Jump up ^ Amdahl, G.M. ; Blaauw, G.A. ; Brooks, F.P. ( 1964 ). `` Architecture of the IBM System / 360 ''. IBM Journal of Research and Development. 8 ( 2 ) : 87 -- 101. doi : 10.1147 / rd. 82.0087. Jump up ^ NEC 78K0 CPU technologies Architecture Turing machine Post -- Turing machine Universal Turing machine Quantum Turing machine Belt machine Stack machine Register machine Counter machine Pointer machine Random access machine Random access stored program machine Finite - state machine Queue automaton Von Neumann Harvard ( modified ) Dataflow TTA Cellular Artificial neural network Machine learning Deep learning Neural processing unit ( NPU ) Convolutional neural network Load / store architecture Register memory architecture Register register architecture Endianness FIFO Zero - copy NUMA HUMA HSA Mobile computing Surface computing Wearable computing Heterogeneous computing Parallel computing Concurrent computing Distributed computing Cloud computing Amorphous computing Ubiquitous computing Fabric computing Reconfigurable computing Cognitive computing DNA computing Peptide computing Chemical computing Organic computing Wetware computing Quantum computing Neuromorphic computing Optical computing Reversible computing Unconventional computing Hypercomputation Ternary computer Symmetric multiprocessing ( SMP ) Asymmetric multiprocessing ( AMP ) Cache hierarchy Memory hierarchy ISA types ASIP CISC RISC EDGE ( TRIPS ) VLIW ( EPIC ) MISC OISC NISC ZISC Comparison ISAs x86 z / Architecture ARM MIPS Power Architecture ( PowerPC ) SPARC VISC Mill Itanium ( IA - 64 ) Alpha Prism SuperH Clipper VAX Unicore PA - RISC MicroBlaze Word size 1 - bit 2 - bit 4 - bit 8 - bit 9 - bit 10 - bit 12 - bit 15 - bit 16 - bit 18 - bit 22 - bit 24 - bit 25 - bit 26 - bit 27 - bit 31 - bit 32 - bit 33 - bit 34 - bit 36 - bit 39 - bit 40 - bit 48 - bit 50 - bit 60 - bit 64 - bit 128 - bit 256 - bit 512 - bit Variable Execution Instruction pipelining Bubble Operand forwarding Out - of - order execution Register renaming Speculative execution Branch predictor Memory dependence prediction Hazards Parallel level Bit Bit - serial Word Instruction Pipelining Scalar Superscalar Task Thread Process Data Vector Memory Multithreading Temporal Simultaneous ( SMT ) ( Hyper - threading ) Speculative ( SpMT ) Preemptive Cooperative Clustered Multi-Thread ( CMT ) Hardware scout Flynn 's taxonomy SISD SIMD ( SWAR ) SIMT MISD MIMD SPMD Addressing mode CPU performance Instructions per second ( IPS ) Instructions per clock ( IPC ) Cycles per instruction ( CPI ) Floating - point operations per second ( FLOPS ) Transactions per second ( TPS ) Synaptic Updates Per Second ( SUPS ) Performance per watt Orders of magnitude ( computing ) Cache performance measurement and metric Core count Single - core processor Multi-core processor Manycore processor Types Central processing unit ( CPU ) GPGPU AI accelerator Vision processing unit ( VPU ) Vector processor Barrel processor Stream processor Digital signal processor ( DSP ) I / O processor / DMA controller Network processor Baseband processor Physics processing unit ( PPU ) Coprocessor Secure cryptoprocessor ASIC FPGA FPOA CPLD Microcontroller Microprocessor Mobile processor Notebook processor Ultra-low - voltage processor Multi-core processor Manycore processor Tile processor Multi-chip module ( MCM ) Chip stack multi-chip modules System on a chip ( SoC ) Multiprocessor system - on - chip ( MPSoC ) Programmable System - on - Chip ( PSoC ) Network on a chip ( NoC ) Components Execution unit ( EU ) Arithmetic logic unit ( ALU ) Address generation unit ( AGU ) Floating - point unit ( FPU ) Load - store unit ( LSU ) Fixed - point unit ( FXU ) Vector unit ( VU ) Branch predictor Branch execution unit ( BEU ) Instruction Decoder Instruction Scheduler Instruction Fetch Unit Instruction Dispatch Unit Instruction Sequencing Unit Unified Reservation Station Barrel shifter Uncore Sum addressed decoder ( SAD ) Front - side bus Back - side bus Northbridge ( computing ) Southbridge ( computing ) Adder ( electronics ) Binary multiplier Binary decoder Address decoder Multiplexer Demultiplexer Registers Cache Memory management unit ( MMU ) Input -- output memory management unit ( IOMMU ) Integrated Memory Controller ( IMC ) Power Management Unit ( PMU ) Translation lookaside buffer ( TLB ) Stack engine Register file Processor register Hardware register Memory buffer register ( MBR ) Program counter Microcode ROM Datapath Control unit Instruction unit Re-order buffer Data buffer Write buffer Coprocessor Electronic switch Electronic circuit Integrated circuit Three - dimensional integrated circuit Boolean circuit Digital circuit Analog circuit Mixed - signal integrated circuit Power management integrated circuit Quantum circuit Logic gate Combinational logic Sequential logic Emitter - coupled logic ( ECL ) Transistor -- transistor logic ( TTL ) Glue logic Quantum gate Gate array Counter ( digital ) Bus ( computing ) Semiconductor device Clock rate CPU multiplier Vision chip Memristor Power management APM ACPI Dynamic frequency scaling Dynamic voltage scaling Clock gating Hardware security Non-executable memory ( NX bit ) Memory Protection Extensions ( Intel MPX ) Intel Secure Key Hardware restriction ( firmware ) Software Guard Extensions ( Intel SGX ) Trusted Execution Technology OmniShield Trusted Platform Module ( TPM ) Secure cryptoprocessor Hardware security module Hengzhi chip Related History of general - purpose CPUs Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=8-bit&oldid=805834561 '' Categories : Data unit Hidden categories : Articles needing additional references from October 2009 All articles needing additional references Articles lacking reliable references from August 2012 All articles lacking reliable references Talk Contents About Wikipedia Беларуская Català Čeština Deutsch Español Esperanto فارسی Français 한국어 Italiano Magyar Bahasa Melayu 日本 語 Norsk Polski Português Русский Slovenčina Svenska Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 17 October 2017, at 22 : 50. 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Question: what is equal to 8 memory locations called bits
Answer: 8-bit integers