Minecraft wiki entry for Redstone_computers, associated text: For example, a computer with a data-word size of 8-bit will have eight channels on its bus (set of wires, connecting components) and therefore, we can count up to (28 - 1). 255. Counting further than 255 is not possible with eight bits, as the operation 255 + 1 carries over a one, which requires a ninth bit or what is called a binary overflow will occur, returning 0 as the answer, which is incorrect.