Parity Bit (Noun)
Meaning
(computer science) a bit that is used in an error detection procedure in which a 0 or 1 is added to each group of bits so that it will have either an odd number of 1's or an even number of 1's; e.g., if the parity is odd then any group of bits that arrives with an even number of 1's must contain an error.
Classification
Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure.
Examples
- The system used a parity bit to ensure that all data packets contained an even number of 1s, making it easier to detect transmission errors.
- Each byte transmitted over the serial connection included a parity bit that was calculated based on the contents of the other bits.
- To prevent data corruption, the programmer included a parity bit in each block of data that was written to the disk.
- The network protocol required the sender to append a parity bit to each packet, allowing the receiver to quickly identify any errors that might have occurred during transmission.
- By adding a parity bit to each data word, the designer was able to implement a simple but effective error detection mechanism for the digital communications system.