Words, Bytes, and Octets

We use the term word to mean a 32-bit data item. We refer to 8-bit items as octets.

If you have used Diamond on other processors, such as the Texas Instruments TMS320C4x, you should note that the smallest addressable unit of memory on the C6000 is an octet. This corresponds to C variables of type char or unsigned char. Strict conformity with the ANSI standard mandates the term byte for items of this size, and we occasionally use it. However, when we do so, we say explicitly what size of data item we mean to avoid confusion for users of other processors.