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 :-)