computer terms: octet

Octet (computing)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In computing, an octet is a grouping of eight bits.

In France, French Canada and Romania, the word octet usually means byte; a megabyte (MB) is called a megaoctet. “Bit” and “byte” are homophones in the French language.

Octet, with the only exception noted below, always refers to an entity having exactly eight bits. As such, it is often used where the term byte might be ambiguous. For that reason, computer networking standards almost exclusively use octet. It is prominently used in Request for Comments (RFCs) published by the Internet Engineering Task Force. The earliest example is RFC 635 from 1974.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octet_(computing)

Tags: mega byte, mega octet, octet