Not to be confused with the source code hosting service Bitbucket.

In computing jargon, the bit bucket (or byte bucket[1][2]) is where lost computerized data has gone, by any means; any data which does not end up where it is supposed to, being lost in transmission, a computer crash, or the like, is said to have gone to the bit bucket –that mysterious place on a computer where lost data goes, as in:

The errant byte, having failed the parity test, is unceremoniously dumped into the bit bucket, the computer's wastepaper basket.

— Erik Sandberg-Diment, 'New York Times, 1985.[3]

Millions of dollars in time and research data gone into the bit-bucket?

— W. Paul Blase, 'The Washington Post, 1990.[4]

History

Originally, the bit bucket was the container on teletype machines or IBM key punch machines into which chad from the paper tape punch or card punch was deposited;[5] the formal name is "chad box" or (at IBM) "chip box". The term was then generalized into any place where useless bits go, a useful computing concept known as the null device. The term bit bucket is also used in discussions of bit shift operations.[6]

The bit bucket is related to the first in never out buffer and write-only memory, in a joke datasheet issued by Signetics in 1972.[7]

In a 1988 April Fool's article in Compute! magazine, Atari BASIC author Bill Wilkinson presented a POKE that implemented what he called a "WORN" (Write Once, Read Never) device, "a close relative of the WORM".[8]

In programming languages the term is used to denote a bitstream which does not consume any computer resources, such as CPU or memory, by discarding any data "written" to it. In .NET Framework-based languages, it is the System.IO.Stream.Null.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Explicit Controls". MCS-86 Assembler Operating Instructions For ISIS-II Users. A32/379/10K/CP ed. Santa Clara, California, USA: Intel Corporation. 1978. p. 3-3. Manual Order No. 9800641A. Retrieved 2020-02-29. […] If you want a summary of errors but not a listing file this is the command: […] -ASM86 LOOT.SRC PRINT(:BB:) ERRORPRINT […] Note that the :BB: is the "byte bucket"; ISIS-II ignores I/O commands from and to this "device". It is a null device. […] [1][2]
  2. ^ "Appendix A. ASM-86 Invocation". CP/M-86 – Operating System – Programmer's Guide. 3 ed. Pacific Grove, California, USA: Digital Research. January 1983. p. 94: Table A-3. Device Types. Archived 2020-02-27 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2020-02-27. [3] (NB. Digital Research's ASM-86 uses token 'Z' (for "zero") to indicate the byte bucket.)
  3. ^ "Parity: An Elegantly Simple Approach to Errors". The New York Times. Personal Computing. 1985-07-09. p. 4. Section C. Archived 2020-02-27 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
  4. ^ "No Harmless Hacker He". The Washington Post. 1990-02-17. Archived from the original on 23 November 2017. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
  5. ^ Introduction to Computer Programming. Prentice-Hall. 1964. p. 108. Retrieved 2013-11-08. The lost bits fall into a container called a bit bucket. They are emptied periodically and the collected bits are used for confetti at weddings, parties, and other festive occasions.
  6. ^ The Apollo Guidance Computer: Architecture and Operation. illustrated ed. Springer Science & Business Media. 2010-06-25. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-44190877-3. Archived 2020-02-27 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
  7. ^ "Signetics 25120 Fully Encoded, 9046xN, Random Access Write-Only-Memory" (photocopy). Signetics. 1972. Archived from the original on 2012-03-16. Retrieved 2012-03-16.
  8. ^ "That month again". Compute!. No. 95. INSIGHT: Atari. April 1988. p. 56. Archived 2020-02-27 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  9. ^ "Demonstrate the use of the Null stream as a bit bucket: Stream Null « File Stream « C# / C Sharp". java2s.com. Demo Source and Support. Archived 2020-02-27 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2020-02-27.