Gray Hat Hacking, Second Edition, 2nd Edition

Computer Memory

In the simplest terms, computer memory is an electronic mechanism that has the ability to store and retrieve data. The smallest amount of data that can be stored is 1 bit, which can be represented by either a 1 or a 0 in memory. When you put 4 bits together, it is called a nibble, which can represent values from 0000 to 1111. There are exactly 16 binary values, ranging from 0 to 15, in decimal format. When you put two nibbles or 8 bits together, you get a byte, which can represent values from 0 to (2⁸ - 1), or 0-255 decimal. When you put 2 bytes together, you get a word, which can represent values from 0 to (2¹⁶ - 1), or 0-65,535 in decimal. Continuing to piece data together, if you put two words together, you get a double word ...