Better way of designing memory layout in tikz

Question

I am designing memory layout of primitive data types such as int showing 8 bits. Below is the code snippet-

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{matrix, positioning, calc}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[node distance=0mm,every node/.style={inner sep=1mm, font=\tiny}]  
    \node [draw, matrix] (a)
    {
        \foreach \x in {0,1,...,7} {\fill[black] (\x mm, 0.0) circle (1pt);}\\
    };

    \node [draw, matrix,right=of a](b)
    {
        \foreach \x in {0,1,...,7} {\fill[black] (\x mm, 0.0) circle (1pt);}\\
    };

    \node [draw, matrix,right=of b](c)
    {
        \foreach \x in {0,1,...,7} {\fill[black] (\x mm, 0.0) circle (1pt);}\\
    };

    \node [draw, matrix,right=of c](d)
    {
        \foreach \x in {0,1,...,7} {\fill[black] (\x mm, 0.0) circle (1pt);}\\
    };

    \node[below=of $(a)!0.5!(d)$, yshift=-1mm] (plus) {label goes here};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

This is how generated diagram looks-

Is it possible to shorten the code? For example, just by encapsulating few nodes, I think it can be done. Any leads, please?

Answer 1

in the case, that all block with dots are equal you can repeat blocks defined as \pic:

\documentclass[margin=3mm]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{fit,
                positioning}

\begin{document}
    \begin{tikzpicture}[
node distance = 1mm and 0mm,
   dot/.style = {circle, fill, inner sep=1pt, right=1mm},
  memory/.pic = {\foreach \x in {1,...,8} {\node (n\x) [dot] at (\x/5,0) {};}
                 \node (f) [draw,
                            inner xsep=3mm, inner ysep=2mm,
                            outer sep=0mm, fit=(n1) (n8)] {};
                 \coordinate (-e) at (f.east);
                 \coordinate (-s) at (f.south);
                 }
                        ]
\pic (a) {memory};
\pic[right=of a-e] (b) {memory};
\pic[right=of b-e] (c) {memory};
\pic[right=of c-e] (d) {memory};
%
\node[below=of b-s -| b-e] (plus) {label goes here};
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Answer 2

Just for fun, one example from the manual (text effects along path) that is slightly adapted here :

\documentclass[tikz,border=7pt]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.text}
\begin{document}
  \begin{tikzpicture}
    \path [
      decoration={
        text effects along path,
        text={~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~},
        text effects/.cd,
        path from text,
        every letter/.style={shape=rectangle, fill=blue!20, draw=blue!40,
          minimum size=7mm, label={center:$\bullet$}}
      },
      decorate,
      local bounding box=memory
    ] (0,0);
    \node[below,scale=2] at (memory.south) {label goes here};
  \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Answer 3

This one uses only one node and its corresponding label.

The node is a rectangle split node (see shapes.multipart library). Each part contents is built with \mydots command. This command has an optional parameter with 8 as default value. This parameter fixes the amount of bullets. As \bullet is a binary operator and this provoques an spacing problem with an even number of bullets, it's converted to ordinary operator with \mathop. Finally the label for the node is drawn with label option.

\documentclass[tikz,border=2mm]{standalone} 
\usetikzlibrary{shapes.multipart}

\newcommand{\mydots}[1][8]{$\foreach\i in {1,...,#1}{\mathop{\bullet}}$}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[rectangle split,
    rectangle split horizontal, draw, font=\small,
    inner xsep=2mm,
    label=below:label goes here]{%
    \mydots\nodepart{two}\mydots
    \nodepart{three}\mydots\nodepart{four}\mydots};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}