What is a nibble?
In computer programming, a nibble is a collection of four bits. The premise is that a nibble is between a bit and a byte (8 bits). The value of the nibble is that it can be represented with a single hexadecimal digit, which has a value ranging from 0 through 9 and A through F with the letters representing numbers from 10 through 15 accordingly. Nibbles are thus often used to maintain binary data that needs to be read by a human being. An example of this would be the RGB values used by web browsers to determine a color, with two nibbles used to determine each of the red, green and blue values. Other, less common, names for the nibble are nybble and tetrade.
last updated 2007.10.30
