A bit is a unit of computer information. Physically, it consists of a microscopic electrical switch that can be closed or open, representing the alternatives of yes or no, on or off, and so forth. The word bit is derived from the words binary digit. You would need to wrestle with complicated computer theory to fully comprehend bits, but for our purposes all we need to know is that groups of bits are called bytes. A byte is a group of 8 bits that functions as a character or symbol that the computer can understand. The 780C microprocessor is an 8-bit microprocessor.
The QX-10’s microprocessor can combine bytes in a multitude of ways. As an example, one byte can have a numerical value of 0 to 255. Suppose you tell the computer to store one byte that has the value of the number 44 and another byte that has the value of the number 56. If you then command the computer to add these two bytes, it retrieves them from their respective storage slots and creates a new byte with the value of 100, which it then stores in memory.
It’s through this sort of mathematical operation that the QX-10 gains its computing power. All of the various combinations of bytes, and all of the combinations of bit patterns within each byte, instruct the computer to perform deeds ranging from simple math to reformatting blocks of text in a document.
QX-10 Memory
Unlike the human brain, the QX-10 has a limit to the amount of information it can store in memory. On the other hand, people sometimes have trouble recalling facts, but the QX-10’s stored data is always accessible on demand. You’ll remember that information is stored as bytes. A thousand and twenty-four (1024) bytes is called a kilobyte. Your QX-10 has 256 kilobytes (256K).
Note: Although kilo means exactly 1000, it is used for convenience to denote 1024 bytes; for instance, 256K is really 262, 144 bytes. The number 1024 is used since it is the closest number to 1000 which is an exact power of 2 (1024 is 2 raised to the 10th power). Computers like numbers divisible by 2.