(Image-1) Nibble

Nibble

• Is represented by a group of 4 bits = 1/2 byte
• This is also a system that the computer uses to count bits internally

The first bit, on the right side of the nibble

• Is called the Low Order bit or LO bit
• This is also called the least significant bit
• The bit on the right side is counted as bit 0

The last bit, on the left side of the nibble

• Is called the High Order bit or HI bit
• It is also called the most significant bit
• The bit on the left side is counted as bit 3

The other bits

• Are called by their positions: bit 1 and bit 2

When a box is empty

• It receives a value of 0
• Otherwise, it has a value of 1

(Image-2) On a group of four consecutive bits, we can have the following combinations:

 The (Image-2) produces the following binary combinations:

• 0000, 0001, 0010, 0011, 0100, 0101, 0110, 0111, 1000, 1001, 1010, 1011, 1100, 1101, 1110, 1111 = 16 combinations
• When using the decimal system, these combinations can be represented as 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15

You will encounter a number that is less than four bits

• (B-1) Such as 10 or 01 or 101

How do you reconcile such a number to a nibble?

• (B-1) The technique used to complete and fill out the nibble consists of displaying 0 for each non-represented bit

Example of (B-1)

• The binary number 10 will be the same as 0010
• The number 01 is the same as 0001
• The number 101 is the same as 0101

This technique is valuable and allows you to always identify

• A binary number as a divider of 4

When all bits of a nibble are 0

• You have the lowest value you can get, which is 0000
• Any of the other combinations has at least one 0 bit
• The lowest value, also considered the minimum value, can be represented in the decimal system as 0

When all bits are 1

• This provides the highest value possible for a nibble
• The highest value, also considered the maximum, can be expressed in decimal value as 2⁴ (2 represents the fact that there are two possible states: 0 and 1; 4 represents the fact that there are four possible combinations), which is 16. This produces 16 because 2⁴ = 16

The computer recognizes

• The hexadecimal representation of bits

(Image-2) We can represent each 4-bit of the sixteen combinations using the decimal, hexadecimal, and binary systems as follows: 

When looking at a binary value represented by 4 bits

• You can get its decimal or hexadecimal values by referring to the table (Image-2)

A nibble, which is a group of four consecutive bits

• Has a minimum and maximum values on each system as follows (Image-3):
• Although the C++ compiler recognizes a group of four consecutive bits
• You cannot store any variable in a nibble
• You can, however, manipulate the bits of a nibble

(Image-3)