Dictionary - Definition of BIT ROT

Webster's Online Dictionary
with Multilingual Thesaurus Translation



Earth's largest dictionary with more than 1226 modern languages and Eve!

Common Expressions: BIT ROT

Expressions	Definition
Bit rot	Bit rot is a colloquial computing term used to facetiously describe the spontaneous degradation of a software program over time. The term implies that software can literally wear out or rust like a physical tool. Bit rot is also used to describe the discredited idea that a computer's memory may occasionally be altered by cosmic rays. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.			Top

Specialty Expressions: BIT ROT

Expressions	Domain	Definition
Bit rot	Computing	Bit rot A hypothetical disease the existence of which has been deduced from the observation that unused programs or features will often stop working after sufficient time has passed, even if "nothing has changed". The theory explains that bits decay as if they were radioactive. As time passes, the contents of a file or the code in a program will become increasingly garbled. People with a physics background tend to prefer the variant "bit decay" for the analogy with particle decay. There actually are physical processes that produce such effects (alpha particles generated by trace radionuclides in ceramic chip packages, for example, can change the contents of a computer memory unpredictably, and various kinds of subtle media failures can corrupt files in mass storage), but they are quite rare (and computers are built with error detection circuitry to compensate for them). The notion long favored among hackers that cosmic rays are among the causes of such events turns out to be a myth. Bit rot is the notional cause of software rot. See also computron, quantum bogodynamics. [Jargon File] (1998-03-15). Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing..
Bit rot	Computing	Bit rot n. [common] Also bit decay. Hypothetical disease the existence of which has been deduced from the observation that unused programs or features will often stop working after sufficient time has passed, even if `nothing has changed'. The theory explains that bits decay as if they were radioactive. As time passes, the contents of a file or the code in a program will become increasingly garbled. There actually are physical processes that produce such effects (alpha particles generated by trace radionuclides in ceramic chip packages, for example, can change the contents of a computer memory unpredictably, and various kinds of subtle media failures can corrupt files in mass storage), but they are quite rare (and computers are built with error-detecting circuitry to compensate for them). The notion long favored among hackers that cosmic rays are among the causes of such events turns out to be a myth; see the cosmic rays entry for details. The term software rot is almost synonymous. Software rot is the effect, bit rot the notional cause. Source: Jargon File..
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.			Top