Computers are described as character byte or word machines what does this mean?

Answer 1

bytes are the computer term to measure how much data is used to create a document. For instance 8 bits equal a byte and one alpha letter is a byte. So if you have a 500 word paper then count all the letters and that is how large your paper is in computer bytes.

Answer 2

I think that you are referring to the technical terms of character, byte, and word rather than the common usage. These are all terms used in the computer field and refer to different sizes of data, all of which are based on the bit.

To explain, the bit is the most basic type of data inside a computer. Bit is actually a contraction of the phrase binary digit. It is a single value of either 1 or 0. Moving up the scale, next is the nibble. This is composed of four bits and, therefore, can have a value anywhere between 0000 and 1111 (0 and 15 in decimal notation). Beyond this is the byte, which is eight bits and can have a value of anywhere between 00000000 and 11111111 (0 and 255 in decimal). In some programming languages, a byte is also sometimes referred to as a character. For example, in Pascal, one can refer to a 15-byte string as an array of 15 values of type Char (short for character). Generally, this refers to printable characters such as the alphabet or numerals but technically can be any ASCII value). At the top end of what you mentioned is the word. This is a series of sixteen bits (the equivalent of two bytes) and can have a value between 0000000000000000 and 1111111111111111 (0 and 65535 in decimal).

A modern computer can use any of these in the appropriate context. Once again I will use Pascal as an example. In Pascal, there is a type of integer variable called Int and has a range of values that can be between -32768 and 32767 (if signed) or between 0 and 65535 (if unsigned). The Int variable is stored in memory as a word value since it uses only sixteen bits to represent its full range of values. By comparison, a ShortInt has a value range of -128 to 127 (if signed) or 0 to 255 (if unsigned) and it is stored in memory as a byte since all values are represented by only eight bits.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.