8‐bit

In computing terms, "8-bit" denotes a system operating with a [binary] data width of 8 [bit]s (or an [octet]) per [byte], allowing for a total of [256] different values to be represented. Some popular 8-bit [CPU]s included the Zilog Z80, MOS 6502, Motorola 6800, and [Intel] 8080, and some of the fondly-remembered home computers they drove included the Altair 8800, the [Amstrad CPC], the [Apple II], the Atari 400, 800, XL and XE, the [BBC Micro], the [Commodore 64], [Pet] and [VIC-20], the Fujitsu FM-7, the MSX, NEC's PC-6000, the Sharp X1, Tandy's TRS-80 and CoCo, the Thomson MO, and the [ZX Spectrum].

The term gets bandied about quite a bit in the same way "retro" does and the hazy memory of gamers means that when people talk about 8-bit this and that, what they actually are talking about are aesthetic qualities of the consoles and handhelds from what is now categorised as the third generation of home video games, including the [NES] and [Game Boy], [SMS], Atari 7800, [PC Engine], and Atari Lynx, and fondly-remembered franchises dating to the time period of their prevalance, roughly from 1985-1990. (Of course, the future is not distributed evenly across society, so some people continued making do on 8-bit platforms for their gaming and computing quite a bit after others had moved on to the more compelling and multimedia-capable 16-bit machines.) By and large, even though the origins of the demoscene and the digital underground are steeped in the 8-bit era, most of the experiences all but the most aged (or once-most-impoverished) nostalgic computer nerds look back on are from after the 8-bit period, when things got interesting with PCs and Macs and the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga. (Granted, Apple II and Commodore 64 heads still probably look back at their time in the sun as a golden age, but TRS-80 users less so.)