In computing, a data segment (often denoted .data) is a portion of an object file or the corresponding virtual address space of a program that contains initialized static variables, that is, global variables and static local variables. The size of this segment is determined by the size of the values in the program's source code, and does not change at run time.

The data segment is read-write, since the values of variables can be altered at run time. This is in contrast to the read-only data segment (rodata segment or .rodata), which contains static constants rather than variables; it also contrasts to the code segment, also known as the text segment, which is read-only on many architectures. Uninitialized data, both variables and constants, is instead in the BSS segment.

Historically, to be able to support memory address spaces larger than the native size of the internal address register would allow, early CPUs implemented a system of segmentation whereby they would store a small set of indexes to use as offsets to certain areas. The Intel 8086 family of CPUs provided four segments: the code segment, the data segment, the stack segment and the extra segment. Each segment was placed at a specific location in memory by the software being executed and all instructions that operated on the data within those segments were performed relative to the start of that segment. This allowed a 16-bit address register, which would normally provide 64KiB (65536 bytes) of memory space, to access a 1MiB (1048576 bytes) address space.

The word data has generated considerable controversy on if it is a singular, uncountable noun, or should be treated as the plural of the now-rarely-used datum.

Usage in English

In one sense, data is the plural form of datum. Datum actually can also be a count noun with the plural datums (see usage in datum article) that can be used with cardinal numbers (e.g. "80 datums"); data (originally a Latin plural) is not used like a normal count noun with cardinal numbers and can be plural with such plural determiners as these and many or as a singular abstract mass noun with a verb in the singular form. Even when a very small quantity of data is referenced (one number, for example) the phrase piece of data is often used, as opposed to datum. The debate over appropriate usage continues, but "data" as a singular form is far more common.

In English, the word datum is still used in the general sense of "an item given". In cartography, geography, nuclear magnetic resonance and technical drawing it is often used to refer to a single specific reference datum from which distances to all other data are measured. Any measurement or result is a datum, though data point is now far more common.

Data is a genus of moths of the Noctuidae family.

Species

References

Wert is a Flemish or American surname, and may refer to:

See also

WERT (1220 AM) is a radio station broadcasting an adult standards featuring soft oldies chiefly from the 1940s through today. Licensed to Van Wert, Ohio, USA, the station serves Van Wert primarily but is considered part of the Lima market. The station is currently owned by First Family Broadcasting and broadcasts from its studios on the Lincoln Highway (County Highway 418) just east of Van Wert.

History

From its first day of broadcasting on Thanksgiving Day in November 1958, WERT/1220, then owned by its local founder The Van Wert Broadcasting Company, has traditionally been a middle of the road formatted music station. WERT's original design engineer was also instrumental in the founding of WMVR in Sidney in 1963. The original owners also built and launched WERT-FM/98.9 in 1962, giving Van Wert its own FM service. WERT AM and FM were then sold to a California company in 1967 for $160,000, according to an article in that year's Van Wert Times Bulletin newspaper. The west coast firm would absentee own and operate the stations for the next four years. Ray Livesay, from Matoon, Il. then purchased the local AM/FM combo in 1971 and operated it throughout much of the 1970s and 80s, boosting the power of WERT-FM to 50,000 watts in 1984. 1988 saw another change in ownership when Atlantic Resources, based in Cincinnati, Ohio bought the stations for a reported $1 million with intentions to move the high power WERT-FM to Ft. Wayne, Indiana, where it remains today as 98.9 The Bear. WERT was then paired with a new FM station licensed to Paulding, Ohio at 99.7 MHz and sold to Community Broadcasting of Van Wert in 1991. In 1994 Chris Roberts (previously with WOWO in Fort Wayne) purchased the local stations after forming First Family Broadcasting, Inc.