Mueen Nawaz wrote:
>     Think modems (the phone ones). In the old days, it was all baud. 1 
> baud is 1bit/s. It probably has stuck since.

Technically, one baud is one symbol per second. A 9600bps modem is a 2400 
baud modem with 2 symbols per baud.

>     Incidentally, I think with old modems, sending 1 byte didn't entail 
> sending 8 bits. I think they had two error correcting bits, making 
> sending 1 byte the same as 10 bits. If there's truth to that, I can see 
> why it'd make sense to specify bits.

One or two start bits to synchronize, one stop bit (or sometimes 1.5 stop 
bits) to process, and perhaps a parity bit. No error correcting bits, but 
parity might give you error detection if you're lucky.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Insanity is a small city on the western
   border of the State of Mind.

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