One application of a large serial-in, serial-out shift register is a memory similar to a disk. If the output bit is connected back to the input as shown in Figure 8.4, when Load is 0, the data circulate around the n flip flops. It is available only when it is in qn, once every n clock cycles. At that time it can be modified, by making Load 1 and supplying the new value on x. If we needed a series of 8-bit numbers, we could build eight such shift registers, storing 1 bit in each. As we clocked all the shift registers, we would obtain 1 byte (8 bits) at a time.