Bit level vs byte level

Am I correct in believing that video game consoles such as the NES used graphics and instructions at the bit level?  Why don't modern operating systems use instructions that are only a few bits rather than bytes?  You'd be doing the same operations at 1/8 the scale.

>>24
Yes, and that does not matter in the slightest because they do not have a DOM *NOW*. Developing one would take many manhours and cost millions.

There is nothing that ties DOM to XML, except that it's been implemented.