A normal byte consists of 8 bits, meaning 8 0s or 1s, this means it can be anything from 00000000 to 11111111. These are just binary numbers, and binary 00000000 is normal (decimal) 0, and 11111111 is decimal 255. So one byte can be any number from 0 to 255. If you don't understand binary, please look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_numeral_system
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A byte represents eight bits (b) of data, with a bit of data equating to a line of eight 1's and 0's (A.K.A binary).
The reason behind this was that early computers could only send eight bits of data at a time. Now, operating systems are being built with 64 bit architecture.
In short, a byte represents a unit of data, made up of eight bits. The next most common unit being the kilobyte, which is composed of 1024 bytes (though there are also kilobits (Kb)).