Bit bucket

{{short description|Lost data in computing}} {{Distinguish|text=the source code hosting service Bitbucket}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020|cs1-dates=y}}

[[File:Univac bit bucket.JPG|thumb|The chad receiver (or "bit bucket")<ref name="Cutler_1964"/> from a UNIVAC key punch]]

In computing jargon, the '''bit bucket''' (or '''byte bucket'''<ref name="Intel_1978_MSC86-OI"/><ref name="DRI_1983_CPM86-PG"/>) 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 {{Ndash}}that mysterious place on a computer where lost data goes, as in:

{{Quote|text=The errant byte, having failed the parity test, is unceremoniously dumped into the bit bucket, the computer's wastepaper basket.|sign=Erik Sandberg-Diment|source=''New York Times'', 1985.<ref name="Sandberg_1985"/>}}

{{Quote|text=Millions of dollars in time and research data gone into the bit-bucket?|sign=W. Paul Blase|source=''The Washington Post'', 1990.<ref name="Blase_1990"/>}}

==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;<ref name="Cutler_1964"/> 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.<ref name="OBrien_2010"/>

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.<ref name="Signetics_1972"/>

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".<ref name="Wilkinson_1988"/>

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''.<ref name="Java2s"/>

==References== {{Reflist|refs= <ref name="Intel_1978_MSC86-OI">{{cite book |title=MCS-86 Assembler Operating Instructions For ISIS-II Users |id=Manual Order No. 9800641A |chapter=Explicit Controls |date=1978 |edition=A32/379/10K/CP |publisher=Intel Corporation |location=Santa Clara, California, USA |page=[https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_intelISISIblerOperatingInstructionsforISISIIUsersM_3593319/page/n10 3]-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_intelISISIblerOperatingInstructionsforISISIIUsersM_3593319 |access-date=2020-02-29 |quote=[…] 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. […]}} [https://archive.org/stream/bitsavers_intelISISIblerOperatingInstructionsforISISIIUsersM_3593319/9800641A_MCS-86_Assembler_Operating_Instructions_for_ISIS-II_Users_Mar79_djvu.txt][https://archive.org/download/bitsavers_intelISISIblerOperatingInstructionsforISISIIUsersM_3593319/9800641A_MCS-86_Assembler_Operating_Instructions_for_ISIS-II_Users_Mar79.pdf]</ref> <ref name="DRI_1983_CPM86-PG">{{cite book |title=CP/M-86 – Operating System – Programmer's Guide |chapter=Appendix A. ASM-86 Invocation |date=January 1983 |orig-year=1981 |edition=3 |publisher=Digital Research |location=Pacific Grove, California, USA |page=94: Table A-3. Device Types |url=http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/digitalResearch/cpm-86/CPM-86_Programmers_Guide_Jan83.pdf |access-date=2020-02-27 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200227225328/http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/digitalResearch/cpm-86/CPM-86_Programmers_Guide_Jan83.pdf |archive-date=2020-02-27}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20200227132338/https://www.z80cpu.eu/mirrors/oldcomputers.dyndns.org/public/pub/manuals/cpm86pg.pdf] (NB. Digital Research's ASM-86 uses token 'Z' (for "zero") to indicate the byte bucket.)</ref> <ref name="Sandberg_1985">{{cite news |author-last=Sandberg-Diment |author-first=Erik |date=1985-07-09 |title=Parity: An Elegantly Simple Approach to Errors |series=Personal Computing |newspaper=The New York Times |location=New York, N.Y., USA |id=Section C |page=4 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/07/09/science/personal-computing-parity-an-elegantly-simple-approach-to-errors.html |access-date=2013-11-08 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200227135254/https://www.nytimes.com/1985/07/09/science/personal-computing-parity-an-elegantly-simple-approach-to-errors.html |archive-date=2020-02-27}}</ref> <ref name="Blase_1990">{{cite news |author-last=Blase |author-first=W. Paul |date=1990-02-17 |title=No Harmless Hacker He |newspaper=The Washington Post |location=Washington, D.C., USA |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1990/02/17/no-harmless-hacker-he/46728304-40ba-4899-96a2-3f67742f4923/ |access-date=2013-11-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171123173709/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1990/02/17/no-harmless-hacker-he/46728304-40ba-4899-96a2-3f67742f4923/ |archive-date=23 November 2017 }}</ref> <ref name="Cutler_1964">{{cite book |author-last=Cutler |author-first=Donald I. |date=1964 |title=Introduction to Computer Programming |publisher=Prentice-Hall |page=108 |isbn= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ecmAAAAMAAJ&q=bucket |access-date=2013-11-08 |quote=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.}}</ref> <ref name="OBrien_2010">{{cite book |author-last=O'Brien |author-first=Frank |date=2010-06-25 |title=The Apollo Guidance Computer: Architecture and Operation |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |page=45 |edition=illustrated |isbn=978-1-44190877-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3fKzL0HfJp4C&pg=PA45 |access-date=2013-11-08 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200227144624/https://books.google.com/books?id=3fKzL0HfJp4C&pg=PA45&lpg=PA37&focus=viewport&hl=en |archive-date=2020-02-27}}</ref> <ref name="Signetics_1972">{{cite web |title=Signetics 25120 Fully Encoded, 9046xN, Random Access Write-Only-Memory |author-first=John "Jack" G. |author-last=Curtis |date=1972 |publisher=Signetics |type=photocopy |url=http://www.national.com/rap/files/datasheet.pdf |access-date=2012-03-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120316141638/http://www.national.com/rap/files/datasheet.pdf |archive-date=2012-03-16}}</ref> <ref name="Java2s">{{cite web |title=Demonstrate the use of the Null stream as a bit bucket: Stream Null « File Stream « C# / C Sharp |website=java2s.com |publisher=Demo Source and Support |url=http://www.java2s.com/Code/CSharp/File-Stream/DemonstratetheuseoftheNullstreamasabitbucket.htm |access-date=2020-02-27 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200227140153/http://www.java2s.com/Code/CSharp/File-Stream/DemonstratetheuseoftheNullstreamasabitbucket.htm |archive-date=2020-02-27}}</ref> <ref name="Wilkinson_1988">{{cite magazine |title=That month again |series=INSIGHT: Atari |author-first=Bill |author-last=Wilkinson |magazine=Compute! |issue=95 |date=April 1988 |page=56 |url=http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue95/056_1_INSIGHT_ATARI_THAT_MONTH_AGAIN.php |access-date=2020-02-27 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200227135922/https://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue95/056_1_INSIGHT_ATARI_THAT_MONTH_AGAIN.php |archive-date=2020-02-27}}</ref> }}

==External links== {{Wiktionary}} * [http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/B/bit-bucket.html Bit Bucket entry from The Jargon File (version 4.4.7)]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bit Bucket}} Category:Computer jargon Category:Punched card