Kb,mb,mbs...
Modem manufacturers used to express their performance in BAUD.
BAUD, named after Baud, the guy who did some early communications research, refers to 'state changes' per second. We computer users sometimes confuse 'state changes' with 'bits' because a 'bit' is the only 'state change' we commonly work with. In modems, on the telephone side anyway, state changes do not necessarily correspond with bits, even though on the computer side of modems, they do.
Additional confusion comes from defining 'k' as either 1000 as the original 'Kilo' traditionally meant or the new 'k' as 1024 meaning 2^10. As you can imagine, with 'Meg', things only get worse!
So, which is it? As long as 'k' can mean 1,000 or 1,024 and 'b' can mean 'baud', 'bit', or 'byte', we'll never know for sure.
Have a nice weekend. PW. |
