Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!RPICICGE.BITNET!FISHER
From: FISHER@RPICICGE.BITNET ("John S. Fisher")
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Bits and Bauds
Message-ID: <8806230329.AA07179@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 22 Jun 88 20:49:22 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 20

A subtile point lost in the bit/baud discussions is the 'bps' refers to the
data transfer rate; 'baud' refers to a signaling rate.  Modem-to-modem
signaling rates and data transfer rates are not the same for high-speed modems.
The definition I first learned for 'baud' was that it is the reciprocal of the
of the shortest unit of time used in signaling.

And saying that

     300 baud  x  1 bit/baud  =  300 bps

is a perfectly reasonable expression given that 1 bit/baud is the
characteristic of the modem.  You could just as easily say

     300 baud  x  1/10 chars/baud  =  30 chars/sec

Or, for that matter

      75 baud  x   1/7.5 chars/baud   =  10 chars/sec

(Good 'ol Baudot, don't you know :-)