Nibble

What Does Nibble Mean?

A “nibble” (also spelled “nybble”) in IT parlance is a four-bit data set equal to half of a byte. This is also sometimes called a quadbit, a half-byte, a tetrade or semi-octet.

Advertisements

Techopedia Explains Nibble

As a unit of data representation, nibbles have been used in some types of processors and microcontrollers. One example is where nibbles can be used to store individual digits of large integers stored in a "packed decimal format" in IBM systems. The nibble was also prominent in the design of Apple II disk data management.

Within the system of groups of nibbles that are representing hexadecimal values or other units of information, engineers might use the terms “high nibble” and “low nibble” to talk about the sequence of storage within a given byte. They may also talk about “big-endian” or “little-endian” systems for storing sequences of nibbles.

Advertisements

Related Terms

Latest Buzzwords and Jargon Terms

Related Reading

Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…