UGC NET Questions (Paper – 1)

A byte is defined in computer science as a collection of eight bits treated as a single unit of information. It is the standard smallest addressable unit of memory in most modern computer architectures. Many storage measurements such as kilobyte and megabyte are based on multiples of the byte. Therefore, the group of 8 bits described in the stem is correctly called a byte.

Option A:
Option A is correct because by long-standing convention hardware and software are designed to read and write data in chunks of one byte at a time. Eight bits provide enough combinations to represent all standard ASCII characters. This makes the byte the fundamental building block for representing text and many other data types in digital systems.

Option B:
Option B, nibble, refers to a group of 4 bits rather than 8 bits. It is sometimes used for representing a single hexadecimal digit but not for the unit described in the question. Thus it is only half the size of what the stem specifies.

Option C:
Option C, word, denotes the natural unit of data used by a particular processor, which may be 16, 32 or 64 bits. Its size varies across architectures and is not fixed at 8 bits. Hence it cannot be the best answer for a group of exactly 8 bits.

Option D:
Option D, kilobyte, is a larger unit equal to 1024 bytes in binary-oriented usage. It is composed of many groups of 8 bits rather than being one such group. Therefore it does not match the definition sought in the question.