Why are 8 and 256 such important numbers in computer sciences?
I don't know very well about RAM and HDD architecture, or how electronics deals with chunks of memory, but this always triggered my curiosity: Why did we choose to stop at 8 bits for the smallest element in a computer value ? My question may look very dumb, because the answer are obvious, but I'm not very sure... Is it because 2^3 allows it to fit perfectly when addressing memory ? Are electronics especially designed to store chunk of 8 bits ? If yes, why not use wider words ? It is because it divides 32, 64 and 128, so that processor words can be be given several of those words ? Is it just